Deeply concerned with corruption, Benjamin Magalong and Vico Sotto wanted to see their cities free from it and act swiftly on it. They knew it was a tall order. What they did as city mayors seemed a fighting chance for the whole country to follow the same. Baguio and Pasig can somewhat be compared to the function of higher education institutions. The two cities learn and act on what they learn, but there is the regret that what they are doing may come to nothing after only a few years because based on many studies, corruption in the country will only repeat itself and it will even get worse.
When Mayor Magalong of northern Philippines’ Baguio talks about corruption in the LGUs, the people he talks to look at their cellphones (“umiiwas”). On the other hand, Mayor Vico of Pasig right inside metropolitan Manila revealed that corruption has been normalized (“hindi kadiri”).
No matter how serious the two cities are required in devising ways to reduce corruption, it will lose its meaning. What is truly required? Free themselves from corruption, not a mere reduction.
Kung nahihirapan sa gawa, dadamihan pa ba natin sa salita?
If it is indeed difficult, will we increase in words? Sapul kami sa academe. (I belong there, minus the more than 17,000 vacant professor positions.) True. The reason is in the function. It needs to be repeated (next read next year or next decade, it still needs to be repeated): That is the reason – valid excuse instead of alibi – because aside from R&D centers, universities are a prime creator of knowledge (Sutz et. al, 2000s). Isa pang ulit: Sapul man kami pero kakaunti kami sa madugong trabaho.
So it is difficult for a president of the country to tell us in the academe that they “are doing everything (including the promise of 20 pesos a kilo of rice under the tutelages of agriculture and other departments).” Or is it like this: “We’re grandstanding everything?” After all, if he already confessed, alluding to a particular department when he visits one country after another that all he has to do is papogi, that should not just be buried on the inside pages of “international” but a banner headline. Care to listen:
“These trips that (we/I) have taken have been quite successful because they have been so well put together. When I get there I’m properly briefed, I have good information, maayos ang takbo… All I have to do is make papogi for everybody because you (diplomats) did the legwork for me already. With that, I hope you realize how appreciative we all are for the very difficult, sometimes extremely complicated, and always quiet work that you do.”
The Secretary of Agriculture, who is also the Head of State and chief of all executives in foreign affairs and other agencies under the Executive Department mentioned in the 1987 Constitution, simply does not have details to back up his claims that everything is being done properly. And by himself? Perish the thought. Marami siyang hindi mabitaw-bitawang posisyon, wala namang mabitawang detalye ng konkretong aksyon sa kahirapan, kagutuman, at lalong lalo na sa korupsyon.
It is not morally acceptable for citizens to be quiet or for the media to shun the right questions and not demand the right answers because, if we are bound by our responsibility to speak up, that is for our family and for our work.
Every time we, and not just the academe, remain silent, we think about that as a representation of risk. The academe at present is like Baguio and Pasig. It is willing to take the risk, but will not back down to work on its primordial functions for our family and for our work.
DC Alviar
Professor DC Alviar serves as a member of the steering committee of the Philippine International Studies Organization (PHISO). He was part of National University’s community extension project that imparted the five disciplines of a learning organization (Senge, 1990) to communities in a local government unit. He writes and edits local reports for Mega Scene. He graduated with a master’s degree in development communication from the University of the Philippines Open University in Los Baños. He recently defended a dissertation proposal for his doctorate degree in communication at the same graduate school under a Philippine government scholarship grant. He was editor-in-chief of his high school paper Ang Ugat and the Adamson News.
