Editorial:

Treasure map

THERE is so much debate these days over whether the drive against corruption is getting anywhere. If you listen to the government, the Presidential Antigraft Commission will tick off dozens of cases it has disposed of—especially those officials it had recommended for prosecution because they could not justify their wealth, or against whom prima facie case of wrongdoing has been found.

You’ll hear a similar litany of reports from the Ombudsman; the Department of Finance, through its Revenue Integrity Protection Service and Run After Tax Evaders programs, has its own list of big and medium fish caught in the hook of good governance.

Government critics, on the other hand, keep saying that the long arm of the law has not really caught yet the proverbial big fish, and that all the big scams unearthed in the past five years or so remain unprosecuted.

Whatever view or whatever side of the fence one sits, however, there’s one case compelling of attention, which started to surface nearly a decade ago, but remains unresolved until now. The case involves the collection of lahar quarry fees imposed by the local government of Pampanga on private business, mostly in construction.

For years, critics of the Lapid empire—the former governor-now-senator Lito, and Mark, his son who succeeded him but lost in the last elections—have alerted the public to the millions of lahar quarry fees that they said should be collected, but aren’t going to the provincial coffers. Instead, on average, the local government was only reflecting an income of an average P30,000 to P50,000 a day from those scooping up Pampanga’s lahar.

Well, the question about how much the local government should really be earning from imposing these fees was just about settled recently with the assumption to office of newly elected governor “Among” Ed Panlilio. Under him, the province started getting an average P1 million in daily fees—yes, P1 million, or more than 20 times what it got in the past.

Undeniably, every civil servant accused of wrongdoing deserves his day in court. The Lapids deserve to be heard—they have repeatedly denied pocketing the fees, but the problem in the past was the physical, circumstantial evidence, i.e., the huge houses and other properties that conceivably could not have been afforded by an ordinary millionaire.

Meanwhile, experts of all stripes debate the best means for confirming corruption in government, prosecuting the culprits and restoring to the government—nay, the people—what is truly theirs. Especially in these days of fiscal tightness and scarce resources for development.

Sometimes, the clues are just there.

THERE is so much debate these days over whether the drive against corruption is getting anywhere. If you listen to the government, the Presidential Antigraft Commission will tick off dozens of cases it has disposed of—especially those officials it had recommended for prosecution because they could not justify their wealth, or against whom prima facie case of wrongdoing has been found.

First came word that George W. Bush was blowing off Southeast Asia. Then Condoleezza Rice did the same. Next comes counting the costs of the US ignoring the world’s most vibrant economic region.

The global business daily, Wall Street Journal, now owned by media mogul Rupert Murdoch, recently came out with an article on Bangkok’s past, which should be read by all concerned Filipinos, most specially President Arroyo’s “economic team” (or what is left of it) before they start singing hosannas to the so-called wonders of their newly minted measures to reform and grow the economy.

It’s back to step one for the government in the long-overdue modernization of the very busy North Harbor at the Port of Manila.

That was a tough call for former trade undersecretary Ernesto Ordoñez issuing the alarm on the government that he used to serve with much enthusiasm on the possibility of substandard cement imported from China being sold in Mindanao.

For the second time after his death, Elvis Presley, adjudged the world’s richest dead celebrity five years in a row by Fortune magazine, will perform “live” on August 16, 2007, before a live audience again.

In the world today, there are many voices that are trying to communicate to us, trying to get our attention. There are many voices that are trying to influence us.