Third of five partsLAST week, I asked: 'Why is politics prone to decay, and how does it infect the whole system?'Let's recall that gross national product, or gross national income, is equal to gross domestic product (GDP) plus 'net income inflow from overseas minus net income outflow to foreign countries,' and where GDP equals consumption + investment + government expenditure + (exports minus imports).It is worth noting as a side comment that domestic consumption and investments have been benefiting from what is called the diaspora surplus (or remittances from overseas Filipino workers), which in no small measure helps our economy grind on despite perennially anemic agriculture and manufacturing sectors. For government, the easiest way to stimulate economic growth is to increase its spending, which is what it does anytime it proposes an outsized budget.To illustrate, the Department of Budget and Management reported that 'government spending for 2022 has reached P5.2 trillion, up by 10.35 percent from P4.7 trillion a year ago (2021).' (DBM, 2023) In 2022, the GDP growth rate increased to 7.6 percent from 5.7 percent in 2021.Government spending — regardless of who ends up benefiting from it (large chunks of it eventually fatten private offshore bank accounts) — is a handy pump-priming tool. What keeps government from spending more is not so much about lack of funds as it is about lack of organizational capacity because government can always borrow money. Indeed, national government debt has grown since 1987 at an average annual rate of 10.6 percent, from P395 billion in 1986 to P16 trillion in 2024.Infrastructure usually gets the lion's share of the government budget, next to education. It is not at all too coincidental that the government likes to spend where there is money for the corrupt. Citing sources, Baguio City Mayor Benjamin Magalong has been quoted by media as saying that 'only about 45 percent to 52 percent will be left [to the actual contractor and project] ... If the project is worth P100, only about P42.50 to P55 goes to fund the project.' In short, up to 59 percent of government spending on infrastructure projects is lost to corruption.Also, former senator Panfilo Lacson said that '45 projects in the 2023 budget and 26 items in the 2024 National Expenditure Program have double, triple, quadruple and quintuple appropriations, thus excessively, unreasonably, unnecessarily and unconscionably bloating fund allocations in the range of 109 percent to 328 percent.'Government incurs debt to support its bulging budget that encourages spending where opportunities for corruption can tempt even the saints.A former finance secretary said 'we need to begin outgrowing our debt by restoring our high growth. To lead our strategy for quick recovery, we need to spend more on infrastructure modernization.'Recently, National Economic and Development Authority Secretary Arsenio Balisacan also said that 'it is imperative to actively pursue development projects, such as infrastructure, financed through loans in order to accelerate the country's economic growth,' adding that 'the economy can still sustain its growth without loans, albeit at a slower pace of one percent to 3 percent.'That is how we have a budget that has grown so large that we need to fund it with debt that is growing at an even quicker pace. Our representatives in government enact the budget often in the name of the poor. But half of those funds earmarked for graft-prone expenditures — like infrastructure — goes to the private pockets of the powerful, the politically connected, and the well-off.Elected officials are expected to always serve as representatives of the people who fight for their interests. Instead, what we have are clowns and misfits manufactured by political dynasties but voted to office anyway. Blending in are dogs unleashed by gang lords, primed to join in the plunder of public funds. The worst of their kind are servants of foreign interests. Altogether, they have become an anomaly that is totally incompatible with public service and are better avoided as excreta of the democratic ideal.We are talking about corruption at the highest levels of government. And where bosses lead by example, it is hard not to think of a government agency whose senior management staff, mid-level executives, and the rank and file are infected by the decay. There is recruitment for sale in the Department of Education and the Philippine National Police; there is dry seal for sale in the judiciary; there are airport and seaport scams involving the Bureau of Immigration and the Bureau of Customs; there are illicit transactions and filthy meal contracts in prison facilities; thieves thrive in times of sorrow (Covid-19 easily comes to mind) and in times of joy (think of confidential funds being used to support foreign travels to watch concerts and spectator sports); there appears to be looting even in lotto whose prize money is largely funded by the poor too desperate to rely on luck to get by. The list is simply too long for us to unload everything here due to space limitations.But we get the drift: government has become a scam. And no one, Lacson laments, seems to mind.Worse, there have been attempts to mute corruption scandals with headline-grabbing violence and lawlessness. The morbid exhibits include the Dacer-Corbito double murder case and the Rizal Day bombing at the tail end of the Estrada administration and the Glorietta along with the Davao City bombings during the Arroyo administration.It is time for the people to assert their sovereign will and ensure that there are meaningful and lasting changes in how government functions. Constitutional reforms aimed at promoting participatory and inclusive governance, especially on the grant of power for citizens to legislate through people's initiative, are boosters. However, people's initiative as a game-changing mechanism has too many procedural hurdles that ordinary citizens can hardly overcome. It is meant to be an option; the goal is to establish it as the option.Next: The PowerPI Project blueprinthaberia@gmail.com
