Corruption and Overpopulation

As Senate hearing on corruption takes its pace, the Reproductive Health (RH) Bill issue hibernates. The prevailing opinion lawmakers sell as “lesser population, better life”  is more than ever important for us to  think  of these days.  When the bill is enacted into law, officials are certain that Filipinos soon start having a better life.

Well, dreaming dreams is not a bad dream.

There was a time when this country was second to Japan in economic growth.  By now, we are second to the last in economic prosperity in the Far East.

Our coffers started to dwindle when corruption flourished. Our way of living deteriorated. That was in the 60’s and continues up to these days. Of course our population swelled and continues to dense and multiply. It seems that “working at night” is the only job Filipinos can afford or is available to them partly because skyrocketing tuition fees prevented them to earn a diploma and exacerbated by “it’s not what you know but whom you know system.”

In a period of half a century, how much was pocketed by corrupt officials and how much are still to be unaccounted for?

I don’t have the official figure but it must be in billions. Had a government free from graft and corruption invested properly the lost amount, we would still be second to Japan in Asia. Well, corruption is everywhere but we mean a tolerable level.

Now comes military corruption.

We read how the wife of a retired general is able to purchase several houses in the US with an average cost of $175,000 or roughly PHP 7.6 million. Multiply that by eight gives roughly PHP 61 million. The late Angelo Reyes is said to have been given a PHP 50 million send off gift when he retired. That accusation literally sent him to the grave where he failed to defend himself in court.

If the trend is like this for "X" length of time involving "X" numbers of military personnel aside from other crooks in the government, do our elected officials mean that what is pocketed would not mean anything to our treasury? When we still have a penny in our currency parents used to say that without it there can be no peso. How much more if we are talking about millions in pesos or in dollars?  In a third world country likes ours, no amount of money is small to augment government wealth.

The sad truth: we still have to see one big fish convicted and sent to prison.

What I hope to read is a result of a scientific study done by private sectors telling how much is saved when our population is reduced and how much is lost from graft and corruption. What if corruption is minimized (if elimination is impossible) but the rate of our population growth remains constant. How would Filipinos and the government fare?

If the RH Bill becomes a law but massive military and government corruption remain unchecked, I believe that we will not be better off. By that time, people will realize that reducing our number is not the answer but . . .

Stopping graft and corruption; prosecuting the corrupt under a credible legal system make a big difference.