SCOURGE OF CORRUPTION

SCOURGE OF CORRUPTION

Erle Frayne D. Argonza

Good day to you fellow global citizens!

We just celebrated the 25th EDSA People Power Revolution in PH last Feb 25. A full twenty-five (25) years after EDSA, the country remains mired in the gargantuan problem of bad governance. Graft & corruption continues to be a scourge to this country, ditto for other countries.

Patrimonial interest groups of every shade continue to pillage the national coffers and the business sector. Business and politics are as intertwined as ever, thus barring efforts to bring down patron-client relations in the public and private spheres. No wonder that corruption remains high and could be, in fact, scaling up the heights in exponential fashion.

For as long as bad governance (‘bureaucrat capitalism’ is the Maoists’ term for it) remains in a vicious circle pattern, poverty will loom large in the near future. People’s incomes will be relatively stagnant, resulting to a stagnant if not declining middle income class. The high growth figure of 7% annual growth will therefore be meaningless, as the growth benefits largely those who are already very rich.

It doesn’t matter if the Philippines has already been urbanized, with as large as 68% of the population and/or the labor force residing in cities and big towns. Urban it is alright, yet replete with narratives of burgeoning urban poor populations.

So that brings us back to square 1, which is the self-perpetuating bad governance cycle. Whether the vicious cycle can be broken during the incumbency of the Aquino regime is doubtful. This government is being run by mediocre bureaucrats who are predominantly Jesuit-schooled boys and girls, who as a whole administer the public sector like “running a student council” as Sen. Joker Arroyo aptly described them.

Sadly for the country and other emerging markets, it is this governance side of the equation that cancels out the very positive outlook resulting from high growth. To note, it is this same scourge that had angered youthful Arabs in Tunisia and Egypt who watched their national leaders plunder the coffers like they were lusciously consuming personal candies, and the scourge is now driving many other Arabs to the streets to overthrow their corrupt leaders.

Good governance, strong institutions, and right policies are getting to be appreciated all the more by the youthful working peoples of the day, such as those in the Arab states. They are values that strongly appeal to the middle class of developing countries, while they resonate well for the young generation of Arabs. Amusing observations!

If the middle class of emerging markets can inspire the young generations of Arabs and countries with authoritarian regimes at the helm, well and good. But let the ‘regime change’ agents be reminded that overthrowing corrupt authoritarian and/or autocratic regimes do not an incorruptible government make.

Examine the history of the Philippines and other countries that are similarly situated, where bad governance perpetually churns itself out long after dictatorships were overthrown. Our neighbor Indonesia is similarly situated, and so are couples of countries in Latin America. The more so for African countries where the problem of racial integration complicates the scourge of corruption.

It seems like we badly hit a quagmire in PH and other developing countries, in regard to graft & corruption. Whether we shall all jettison efficaciously out of the quagmire in the short run is a delusion. And maybe never will there be hope in reforming governance institutions that would enable eradication of poverty and attendant problems.

As to the reason behind the scourge, I am reminded of the explanation of the pioneer sociologist Emile Durkheim. The noblesse gentleman cogitated that there will always be deviants in society, unless that society is populated by saints. Deviance, such as corruption, will always prevail at levels beyond the residual, to follow Durkheim’s logic.

Economists would have it that ‘rent seeking’ will assert itself in diverse circumstances, inclusive of the public sector. Rent seeking, or reaping profits beyond opportunity costs, explicates corrupt practices and no less. The UP School of Economics professor Emmanuel De Dios had already writ informative articles about the matter, so please try to search for his articles in university libraries and online.

I do perceive corruption as a scourge, even as I remain optimistic that in the very long run it will be minimized. Humans will gradually evolve across time, and I guess the conscience of future humans will work the greater to make values work in daily life. But it seems my concluding note is only wishful thinking, so I’d leave it up to you to form your opinions on the subject matter.

[Philippines, 27 February 2011]

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EVIL GLOBAL ELITES KILLED PH’S ANGELO REYES

Erle Frayne D. Argonza

In a previous article, this analyst tackled the matter of corruption in the echelon of the AFP (Armed Forces of the Philippines). As discussed, the AFP echelon’s corrupt acts have direct link to the US Pentagon that bred the former and continues to treat it as a subordinated institution.

It was during the recent ongoing investigations that former AFP chief and past Secretary of Defense, Angelo Reyes, was summoned by the Senate to answer allegations about slush funds for generals and related graft practices. Barely just days after facing the senate blue ribbon committee, Reyes committed suicide by shooting himself at the foot of his deceased mother’s grave.

Had Reyes died of a health-related cause such as cardiac arrest, I should have never suspected of the possible handiwork of an evil circle behind his death. Reyes died just like the way the late Ted Borlongan, former CEO of the Union Bank, end his life. Borlongan was blamed for the bank run that the Union Bank went through, and committed suicide by shooting himself at the foot of his mother’s grave.

People ought to know that the Union Bank is owned by the former president Fidel V. Ramos, also a retired general like Reyes. As president from 1992 through ’98, Ramos got was alleged to have received gargantuan kickbacks in power contracts, government estates sales (to favored buyers), and the infra for the centennial celebration of Philippine independence, among others.

Ramos left the presidency very much wealthier than before, enough for him to secure control of the Union Bank as a largesse for his favored actions for a certain patron comprising of evil cabal. That same cabal are persons among the Who Is Who of global elites, and comprise a section of the abominable Committee of 300 (C300), also known as the Illuminati or New World Order (a Luciferan global network or secret government).

Ramos’ abominable handlers were the ones who planned all along to overthrow Marcos in 1986, which indeed happened. The same cabal again used Ramos to overthrow Erap Estrada in 2001, which also happened. Angelo Reyes, then chief of staff under Erap, was already a favored figure among neo-conservative honchos inside the Pentagon (installed there earlier by the old man Bush).

So you can see how easy it was for Ramos to connect to Angie Reyes who was his former subordinate (as chief of AFP and as defense secretary). Upon the behest of the neo-conservative wing of the C300 and old players like George Schultz (a C300 adept), Ramos gave the directive to Angie to tow the line and join the EDSA II forces that were massing up to overthrow Erap.

To claim now that Reyes voluntarily shot himself is old hat simpleton discourse. Writers and thinkers can go on with their reflections about his death, but I don’t buy any of them. Like Ted Borlongan couples of years back, Reyes was a fall guy. A cabal of dark adepts, using psychic attack method (e.g. meditating together to command the target to commit suicide), took down both Borlongan and Reyes.

Both Borlongan and Reyes knew of very highly classified information—regarding criminal money movements such as racketeering, money laundering—that were done by dirty operators of the C300. Borlongan knew of classified info in the banking sector, while Reyes knew of parallel information within the defense Establishment.

In Reyes’ case, information about direct commands from the C300 for the escalation of hostilities with the Muslim separatists in Mindanao was the bone of contention. AFP field forces were used to sell arms to the rebels (Sen. Trillanes and Magdalo rebel forces know much about this), indicating how important war was to the generals, defense officials and Pentagon honchos.

To cut the story short, Reyes must be eliminated in order to stop further investigations unleashing a can of worms. Investigations should stop at the level of retired generals, and venture not an iota into culpabilities of global networks of the abominable C300.

Reyes was clearly a fall guy in the dirty games of the elites. A person with a strong mind like Reyes, who isn’t ailing from sociopathy or personality disorder, has no suicidal ideation tendency. I am not about to be fooled by abominations who are playing tricks on the public mind, by making it appear that Reyes’ suicide was volitional.

The evil handlers of Ramos did it to Borlongan before, they did it to Reyes this time. It will only be a matter of time before some fall guys will die again as sacrificial pawns in their evil games for the sake of their insatiable greed and power over people’s minds.

[Philippines, 19 February 2011]

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