Costly Mistake

The buck stops at the helm of the country’s leadership. It stops where Aquino sits.

Candidate Aquino, during the May 2010 campaign, said that P280 billion has been lost to corruption in 2009 alone.

Transparency International estimates the figures correspond to more than 20% of the national budget of P.1.45 trillion on the same year.

This is more than double the 167.94 billion allotted for education in 2009; five times the 56 billion “stimulus fund” (P17 billion for infrastructure projects, P10 billion for education, P1 billion to the environment, P2 billion for health and P3.15 billion for agriculture), designed to cushion the country from the impact of a global economic crisis; and nearly equivalent to the current budget deficit which stands close to P300 billion.

Forget about everything else – that Noynoy would not even have become a viable presidential candidate, much less a president, had not his mother’s death spawned the formidable Ninoy-Cory-EDSA three-wave nostalgia – at its face, Benigno Aquino III’s anti-corruption platform won him the presidency. And the Filipino people could not have been faulted. Arroyo’s 9-year term had become synonymous with corruption, that the promise of integrity in public service became too good an offer to refuse. 

The evils of the Arroyo administration notwithstanding, I did not however think Aquino should be President “by default.” Even then, I shared the sentiments of a few others: it is one thing to want change, to want the nation to tread the righteous path; it is another to claim oneself capable of leading others in that direction.

I knew Aquino could not walk his talk. Not because he was dishonest or insincere, even given the benefit of the doubt on that respect, at best, he would be limping on that leadership path – simply because he had never walked it before.

12 years in Congress – 3 terms in the House of Representatives and half-a-term in the Senate – Aquino has not passed a bill into law. Filing a bill would have been proof of a vision, having it passed, a testament of leadership. He had done neither, and even then, it was unimaginable for him to acquire both vision and leadership, only because an overwhelming majority of the electorate gave him exclusive rights to the title “His Excellency.”

Exactly a week ago, 55 days into his presidency, Aquino fumbled on his administration’s first major crisis – as the world watched in dismay, and we, in utter embarrassment.

No, that was not “just” police matter, Mr. President. As the Chief Executive, you had nearly 11 hours to realize the diplomatic and economic repercussions of that incident, just as a legislator, you had 12 years to realize the importance of legislating at least one bill into law. On both times you were caught, mouth agape, unsure which path to take.

This time however, the world was watching.

Now, the backlash is as inevitable as the consequences of a people’s collective folly that “integrity,” “pedigree,” and “legacy” would suffice as a substitute for competence.

Tourism’s average share to the country’s GDP is more than 6%, making it a key economic driver.

The Department of Tourism (DOT) is looking at a target of 5 million arrivals for 2010, with an equivalent tourism expenditure of $4.8 billion, very conservative given that the country has been surpassing targets in tourism receipts since 2007 -- before 8 tourists died here on Monday.

According to the DOT, “visitors to the country’s key tourist destinations rose 5.37% to 3.65 million in the five months to May from the same period in 2009,” with “the East Asian market, composed of China, Hong Kong, Japan, South Korea and Taiwan, was the metropolis’ major source of tourists, accounting for 41.78% of total visitors” -- before 8 Hong Kong nationals were killed in Manila on Monday.

Overseas Filipino Workers (OFW) remittances is yet another driver, accounting for an estimated 10% of the country’s total economic output. Remittances from 1.4 million OFWs in 2009 alone totalled to $17.3 billion. 10% of these OFWs, or more than 100 thousand work in Hong Kong. Now, they fear for their jobs and perhaps their lives.

There should not even be a dichotomy. Integrity and competence are not mutually-exclusive of one another. But if we must follow then candidate Aquino’s logic, perverted as it may be – integrity over competence – then P280 billion lost in a year to corruption is nothing compared to 9 lives lost within 55 days of the Aquino administration; lost within 11 hours of sheer incompetence, humiliating even for this third-world nation.

And when the ripples are felt on two of the country’s major economic drivers, no, the buck will not have to stop at the ground commander, or even the leadership of the PNP, not even the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) Secretary.

The buck stops at the helm of the country’s leadership. It stops where Aquino sits.

You think corruption is costly? Try incompetence. (DPG)