A noble calling
Public service is a noble calling. This is according to Nancy Pelosi, the first and only woman to serve as speaker of the US House of Representatives.
I chanced upon a TV interview of Pelosi the other night, in which she talked about public service and her inspiration for it, her father, former Maryland congressman and Baltimore mayor Thomas D’Alesandro Jr.
Pelosi has her detractors and was once implicated in an insider trading scandal – an accusation she denied. The US has had numerous scandals involving politicians and bureaucrats. But I think it’s safe to say that many workers in the US government agree with Pelosi’s description of public service, and their work is guided by the ideal.
In our country, public service is often an oxymoron, with public servants serving mainly themselves. If certain government agencies were in the private sector, they would have folded a long time ago because of the awful customer service.
Consider this former local government executive who’s seeking another elective post in May. His wife has taken over his former post. Since becoming their local government’s top executive about a decade ago, the couple’s conjugal wealth has grown, as the cliché goes, by leaps and bounds.
They now own prime real estate all over their fiefdom, leased to commercial centers. Businessmen complain that the guy forced owners of the prime areas to sell their properties, with the not-so-subtle threat of making things difficult for the other businesses of those who resisted the arm-twisting. Local entrepreneurs are also forced to buy certain items from the politician’s businesses.
One of the newly acquired properties, at the heart of their turf, now bears a gigantic campaign streamer of the clan.
Barangay personnel in their turf helped conduct a census so the government could determine households that would benefit from the conditional cash transfer. The barangay personnel later told beneficiaries known to support a rival clan in the opposition that they would be cut off from the CCT. The threat was carried out.
The natural charm of the guy’s turf has been marred by unsightly, unimaginative property development now blocking the scenery that is the area’s principal tourist attraction. Businessmen who have suffered the subtle shakedown by the ruling clan have a common suspicion about how the abomination happened. It’s just a suspicion because no one really sees money changing hands in this country, and only Jose Velarde has been stupid enough to sign his fake name on an official document, and in the presence of a witness.
A scrutiny of the couple’s phenomenal wealth gain on a local executive’s modest paycheck should raise alarm bells in the Anti-Money Laundering Council, the Bureau of Internal Revenue, Commission on Audit and Office of the Ombudsman.
Since the guy belongs to the administration coalition, however, and is likely sharing at least some of his wealth by contributing to the party war chest, he’s home free, at least for the remainder of daang matuwid.
* * * To be fair, such situations are common all over our islands, cutting across party lines. If a politician in this country says public service is a noble calling, Pinoys will dismiss it as campaign crap.
Our politicians kill for a three-year term with modest pay because political power is the bedrock of immense family fortunes. For those in power, there is no red tape, no lack of roads and other needed infrastructure. Their businesses often have captive customers – such as the mayor whose father entered the paper bag business and cornered the supply when their city government banned plastic bags.
The Philippines ranks low in international studies on ease of doing business, but there’s an express lane for relatives and cronies of public officials.
Government contracts are chopped up into smaller packages to skirt the threshold requirement for public bidding, and then awarded to cronies. Or else offices go through the motions of public bidding, but the tenders are rigged. In the case of the Metro Rail Transit 3, if the accusations are true, an artificial emergency was created to justify the award of a fat contract without bidding to a favored group.
It’s doubtful that the May elections will lead to any significant change in this sorry state of affairs.
* * * In Pelosi’s interview, she was also asked about leadership. Pelosi was unanimously chosen by her Democratic peers to be the House speaker for two terms, and later as House minority leader.
If you have vision and a plan, she said, people follow you. Then you become a leader.
I thought about the men and women seeking our nation’s two highest posts. (The vice presidency is important because, as we’ve seen in the past, fate can propel the spare tire to Malacañang.)
All of them are doing their homework and, as yesterday’s first debate among the presidential aspirants showed, they have specific plans that they hope to launch in case of victory. Less clear is whether anyone is a visionary and, more important, a visionary who can deliver.
At the first debate, the candidates stayed pretty much on message: Vice President Jejomar Binay pitched leadership, Davao Mayor Rodrigo Duterte promised a bloody war on all forms of criminality within three to six months of winning, Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago cited her competence, Sen. Grace Poe promised a compassionate and trustworthy presidency, and former interior chief Mar Roxas denigrated his rivals and promised more of daang matuwid.
Roxas had the added task of defending the record of the current administration, which his rivals for their part criticized at certain points.
All the candidates have their own strengths. Beyond the periodic leadership change, however, we need a sea change in our attitudes toward politics and public service.
Politics should be an enabler of the majority and not just of an individual and his relatives and friends. At its best, politics should give justice to the term public service. We’re still a long way from the ideal.