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The Institutionalization of Corruption

Taking a look at the Philippine culture, one cannot help but notice the tight bond between family members. Everything that each Filipino does always pertain to the wellbeing of his or her family. May it be in the private or public sector, each Filipino always puts in front of him/her the interest of their direct beneficiaries before anyone else. According to the book written by David Joel Steinberg, the best example of depicting what the Filipino people is all about can be seen in the jeepney (a developed version of the WWII army jeep relic used to bring passengers from point A to point B, a means of public transportation). The jeepney shows where the Philippines came from and what it is all about. Try riding in a jeepney and observe every detail seen onboard. In front of the driver an image of Mother Mary or the Santo Niño is most of the time present, emphasizing the strong influence that the Spanish era has on our people. Posted on the windshield or ceiling of the jeepney are the names of all the family members of the driver or the owner of the vehicle showing the importance that each Filipino gives to his/her family. Outside of it are the colorful streamers depicting the diversity of its people. And at the backside, catchy phrases of western movies and pick-up lines are blatantly displayed showing the growing influence of pop-culture.
Disregarding the other Filipino traits that are found in the jeepney, let us concentrate on the aspect that gives wait on the development of our country; the political or the human interrelationships facet. Filipinos are about wide networks of relatives and are fond of even widening it through what we call compadrazgo or the accepting of non-blood relatives into the family such as ninongs (godfathers) and ninangs (godmothers) or as just plain family friends. This is a common practice here in the Philippines that even influence the way the government runs. Nepotism is a tradition or a way of life. If you are planning to undergo the governmental process of validating permits or even applying for drivers licenses, the first thing that you have to find out is if you know somebody inside those departments that could make the transactions you need very easy for you. In the absence of this compadrazgo practice according to Steinberg, people resort to what we call “fixers” to fill in the gap between the person-in-need and the politician needed for the transaction to be able to get what they desire, which most of the time involve bribes.
Taken together with the lack of transparency, accountability and predictability of our government, corruption can be considered as the oil that lubricates this so-to-say “government machinery”. Corruption is a way of life here in the Philippines and because of its commonality people consider it as a trend. This essay is not written to confuse corruption as something considered to be legal in our country but as something institutionalized.

Jonathan Van Haute
FLSS Development and Political Researcher