Maguindanao, its political elite and a culture subservient to corruption

COMMISSION ON HUMAN RIGHTS

On the Occasion of the UNCAC Day Celebration

Orchid Garden Suites Hotel, City of Manila

9 December 2009

delivered by

LEILA M. DE LIMA

Chairperson, Commission on Human Rights of the Philippines

KEYNOTE SPEECH

Good afternoon.

Today we celebrate another year of the UN Convention on Corruption since it came into force in December 14, 2005. We celebrate the significance and ground-breaking character of the Convention, its progressive restatement of timeless notions of integrity, its promise for better methods and means to combat corruption. We all bask in the importance of an instrument that affirms the right against corruption as an integral human right, an inseparable adjunct to a vast set of other human rights. Indeed, where the right to corruption is protected, many other civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights are served, such as the right to development, the right to health, to access to justice, to due process, to equal protection.

Yet, as with every year that we revisit this landmark instrument and its hopeful promises, it cannot be helped that our euphoria must be muted as we take the time to examine our present circumstances and assess the progress and extent of the Philippine Government’s level of compliance to the UNCAC since it was formally ratified by the Philippine Senate on November 6, 2006.

There are very hopeful signs, as we have gleaned from the report of the Ombudsman. We have also noted that the Supreme Court has taken enormous steps to discipline corrupt members of the Judiciary. We know that the COA and the DBM have been very stringent and exacting with government agencies. We know that the BIR and BoC, under the auspices of the Department of Finance, has been exerting superhuman efforts to meet collection targets as part of a larger campaign towards responsible fiscal management of the country’s finances.

Yet, in spite of the scale of efforts to directly or indirectly curb corruption, we come face to face with the realization that the breadth of the problem is not only significantly larger than the efforts against it, but corrupt practice has enjoyed a longevity and permanent entrenchment that requires nothing short of a society-wide transformation if we are even to hope that our obligations under the UNCAC can be reasonably met.

Nothing illustrates the breadth of the issue more completely than the very issue occupying the most of the front page news – the Maguindanao Massacre. Maguindanao and the entrenchment of its political elite expounds the pervasiveness of a culture subservient to corruption across all stakeholders, from local and national duty-bearers, to an entire provincial population of rights-holders.

While the Department of Justice moves to freeze assets of the Ampatuan clan amid questions as to how they had amassed extraordinary wealth during their decade of power, the public has raised another question, “How had this gone unnoticed for so long?”

The question bespeaks of naiveté, and it is almost rhetorical, and deserving of no answer. Two days ago, at a press conference with FOCAP, high-ranking government officials admitted that they had known for years of the enormous arms cache of the Ampatuans, and this is why they are confiscating them now.

Only now?

Then what of the mansions built in Maguindanao and in Davao City? What of the fleet of SUVs, trucks and luxury vehicles? Had we not known of these for as long as the existence of the arms cache? And the size and strength of the private militia?

While the Ampatuans of Maguindanao are able to amass all of these, the province remains the second poorest province in the country, with little evidence of existing industry save for marginal agriculture. The homes of the Ampatuans stand in stark contrast to the surrounding poverty of constituents of the local ruling family. While the rest of the country wonders how this all happened, the truth is that there are many who have always known, could have sooner reported or addressed this corruption.

The importance of revisiting the UNCAC in relation to the Maguindanao Massacre is not simply encapsulated in the bare existence of corruption. One outstanding feature of the UNCAC is that it moves well beyond old notions of corruption and its illegality. The UNCAC improves previous instruments of this kind, criminalizing not only basic forms of corruption, such as bribery and the embezzlement of public funds, but also trading in influence and the concealment and laundering of the proceeds of corruption. Offenses committed in support of corruption are also dealt with.

It has become apparent that the issue is not only that the Ampatuans are probably liable for massive embezzlement of public funds to purchase their homes and luxury lifestyle, and to maintain a private militia incontrovertible strength, but that they had been coddled or allowed to do so. The theft of internal revenue allotments to Maguindanao and other revenue sources were consented to, either directly or indirectly, by protracted neglect by the national government. Moreover, with the discovery of various arms caches bearing the marking of the Armed Forces of the Philippines and the Department of National Defense, we are compelled to ask another question – were these stolen by the Ampatuans or did the Ampatuans purchase them from the AFP? Or were these given to them by the AFP?

We must take very seriously all these allegations that the ruling administration had benefited from election fraud perpetrated by the Ampatuans. Only with a fully appreciation and resolution of this issue can we conversely understand the direct or indirect consent granted to the Amaptuans to carry out their pillage of public coffers.

At the point where the wealth and power may have been fully consolidated and monopolized by the ruling clan in Maguindanao, the failure of institutions had become a natural consequence. The magnitude of this failure is exemplified by the participation and collusion of members of the Philippine National Police in the massacre. Governmental institutions, which were designed to be distinct and separate entities from the local chief executive, had become subservient to the latter. It compounds the allegations that the AFP in Maguindanao had been supplying the Ampatuans with armaments.

What about the local prosecutorial service, the local Judiciary? Were they also part of the systemic support that allowed the Ampatuans to carry on with their impunity? So many more questions must be asked, and we are not anywhere near the end within sight. With the failure of institutions, coupled with the consent of the national government, Maguindanao had reached the point where corruption and lawlessness were essentially irreversible.

The massacre could have been averted in spite of the failure of the rule of law prevailing in Maguindanao prior to Novermber 23. At the very end of whatever complex notions we may have of law, justice, decency, civility and humanity, the perpetrators of the crime had the choice, had a choice, not to pull the trigger. It may have come down to the would-be killers’ humanity. In following their conscience, this would not have ended in a carnage so bestial that it brings so much shame to the Filipino people.

Or so we think.

The corruption perpetrated at the first instance, replicates itself over and over, and it becomes addictive. Support for corruption, too, is self replicating, and it bequeaths more opportunities for corruption. In the end, the ones responsible for the murder of 57 unarmed human beings had been so emboldened by the power they held, that, they could no longer invoke their own humanity and compassion. Members of their militia may have found it impossible, despite their conscience, to defy orders to shoot.

Ladies and gentlemen, this is the breadth of our corruption. It does not rob us of only our integrity. It doesn’t only make cheats, thieves and pilferers of us. It doesn’t not only make us apathetic, self-centered and self-serving. In its worst form and most grotesque face, it does not only make us indifferent to our humanity, it molds men into animals.

Make no mistake – the Maguindanao Massacre is as much about corruption as it is about murder, impunity, lawlessness and injustice. It is as much about national institutions allowing corruption as it is about local institutions submitting to it. It is as much about rights-holders made helpless and cowed into silence, as it is about the utter failure of duty-bearers.

It is shocking to find out that only now, the DBM and COA are being directed to unravel the almost assuredly anomalous disbursements of public funds in relation to the Ampatuans. Yet, as disturbing as the conditions of corruption are in Maguindanao, we know that analogous situations prevail across the country, in varying degrees.

And local governments are not the end of the list. Many more issues surface in relation to large-scale mining projects, like allegations that ECCs are customarily issued illegally in favor of mining companies. The Mindoro Nickel Project is one such instance where dubious DENR approval was obtained, although withdrawn later on.

The automation of national elections is also not without allegations of irregularity or impropriety in the bidding process, where Smartmatic had been awarded the contract. This does not even cover the looming, yet unnervingly familiar, atmosphere of election fraud that goes with election season.

The infamous ZTE broadband contract remains unresolved, as with the alleged overpricing of the Macapagal Highway in Pasay. Large infrastructure projects are almost always mired in allegations of kickbacks and corruption.

Likewise, the Fertilizer Scam remains in limbo. The cutting of trees in a protected forest in Subic to pave the way for high-rise buildings had been forgotten.

Various lifestyle checks on small-fry officials or employees in the BIR and BoC have led to dismissals from service or suspensions. Where then are the big fish that perpetuate corruption in government agencies?

Even the private sector is hounded with this malady, as illustrated in the allegedly forced sale of Yuchengco-owned PLDT shares at the instance of former President Estrada as intimated by Senator Lacson. In addition, oil companies are under constant pressure to remain transparent amids allegations of unfair and unscrupulous pricing. In the aftermath of “Ondoy,” despite price controls, not only oil companies had been accused of skirting mandatory limits on prices but retailers of other goods and commodities.

The issues are overwhelmingly numerous. They are made even more numerous when we carefully scrutinize several human rights issues and find that many are also related to corruption. Killings related to police corruption, denial of basic services such as health and education because of institutional corruption, and many more as I could go on and on.

As pointed out in the invitation letter of Transparency International, “the prevalence of corruption in our midst, has raised our concerns about the level of compliance with our international commitments”. Indeed, we are concerned. In fact, we should be alarmed, especially with the constant stream of adverse repercussions on a vast range of human rights.

The pervasiveness of corruption and its infiltration into broad range of issues which have direct impact on human rights compels us to support our partners in civil society in the formation of an independent Anti-Corruption Monitoring Mechanism. Just as vast swaths of the population is invariably a victim of corruption and its latent effects on human rights, equally large segments of the population must mobilize to combat it. All these declarations from the national government that corruption is being addressed is not enough – as so lamentably shown by the circumstances in Maguindanao. While we cannot move forward without governmental effort, the effort must gain strength among the people through civil society, our NGOs, people’s organizations, our youth even, through our votes in elections, through our deafening clamor in order to compel government into unabated and unwavering action. We must raise public awareness of corruption and what can be done about it. Just as the UNCAC enjoins each State Party to establish and promote effective practices aimed at the prevention of corruption, we ourselves, the people, must in turn demand this from our government.

In the various issues which the Commission on Human Rights had addressed and continues to address, there is one unchanging element, without which, efforts to protect and promote human rights become exponentially more difficult. Without fail, it is the support of civil society. Various specialized organizations have very specific skill sets, expertise, knowledge and networks that lend invaluable assistance to the CHR and concerned government agencies. There are many organizations working for human rights and their efforts are best utilized when combined with one another and with public institutions tasked with policy and enforcement.

The proposed independent Anti-Corruption Monitoring Mechanism must be founded upon an extremely large support base from all sectors, if it is to be effective in toppling a Goliath-like corruption. The CHR is on board and fully supports efforts towards the formation of the mechanism. We look forward to its creation and our continued collaboration with civil society proponents.

When we look at the events that are unfolding in Maguindanao, and try to make sense of the massacre, we must not lose sight of the end goal of all this public clamor, which is not only to deliver justice for the victims and their families, not only to ensure that such a carnage will never happen again, but to prevent the upstaging of so many human rights by addressing one of the most distant and primordial causes of many of our human rights afflictions, which is corruption.

To our colleagues from government, particularly the Ombudsman as an essential institution in the effort to enforce integrity and a code of conduct over public servants, to our friends from Transparency International and all duty-bearers in our quest to quell corruption, I cannot emphasize enough that the unflagging strength of our resolve and partnership will determine whether or not our country will see the day when we truly attain the promises the UNCAC represents, when our countrymen are fully liberated from corruption and can completely enjoy the fullest protection of their human rights.

Maraming salamat po.