A thesis on corruption
By Randy David
Philippine Daily Inquirer
9:36 pm | Wednesday, July 31st, 2013
Even if only half of the allegations against her turn out to be true, Janet Lim-Napoles, the supposed brain behind the mind-boggling pork barrel scam that is the subject of ongoing Inquirer reports, would easily qualify as the country’s foremost expert on corruption. The elaborate scheme attributed to her presumes an intimate grasp of the workings of the political system that no Filipino scholar has ever fully documented. Napoles appears to have explored the weakest links of government and seen the vulnerabilities of officials at various levels. But, instead of writing a doctoral thesis or book on the topic, she has used this knowledge to build a lucrative business.
Should she ever land in prison and need a benign intellectual pursuit to keep her active mind at work, I would recommend that she consider writing a participant-observer account of the social system of corruption. I would be happy to offer advice on the theoretical framework. A working title for her thesis might be: “Politics and the function of corruption: How the pork barrel works.” The aim of the study would be to bring out the background assumptions implicit in the way the JLN group of companies navigated the murky waters of government. Such research would help transitional societies like ours find effective antidotes to the scourge of corruption in public service.
I would begin with the hypothesis that the pork barrel, which goes by the pretentious name Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF), is really nothing more than a bribe to the legislators who hold the power to approve the national budget. This concession can take many forms and go by other names like “congressional initiatives.” But the basic idea is the same: to provide congressmen and senators the means to cater to the specific needs of their constituencies, and, if they wish, to recoup part of what they spend during elections.
This seemingly irrational feature of the political system proceeds from the recognition that in a society where material deprivation and lack of access to services continue to be the lot of the many, legislators find themselves having to attend to the personal needs of their constituents. This is not their function yet it is what makes running for office very costly. The lack of differentiation between government and politics per se precisely casts them in the role of overall patrons, well beyond the function of lawmaking. Lawmaking becomes, for many of them, no more than a peripheral chore. In such settings, one might as well replace Congress with a small commission of full-time professional experts on policy and law to work on legislation. But that would go against the tenets of representative democracy.
As I have previously said in this column, voters, in general, are not averse to the idea of giving their representatives the right to identify pet or priority projects. What they object to is the waste and misappropriation of public funds that typically result from the exercise of this power. The pork barrel scam to which the Napoles network is linked shows that corruption thrives where discretion is broad and no clear assignment of accountability exists.
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Yesterday's results are at the bottom
013*
118**
156*
145**
158**
148**
168**
358
458
568
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012**
017**
018**
016**
036*
023
035
039
Yesterday's Philippine PCSO Draw Results
For July 31, 2013 Wednesday
EZ2 Lotto
Morning 11am: 25-29
Afternoon 4pm: 14-21
Evening 9pm: 31-16
Winning numbers in exact order
Php 4,000.00 per 10 peso play
Suertres Lotto Luzon Vis-Min
Morning 11:00 am: 9-5-0
Afternoon 4:00 pm: 6-0-3
Evening 9:00 pm: 5-8-5
Winning numbers in exact order
Php: 4,500 per 10 peso play
4Digit Luzon & Vismin
9pm: 2-7-4-2
Winning numbers in exact order
BINGO Milyonaryo
9pm: B = 3 I = 3 N = 8 G = 4 O = 05 M = 16
4pm: B = 4 I = 8 N = 6 G = 0 O = 29 M = 13
11am: B = 6 I = 6 N = 8 G = 5 O = 00 M = 31
Winning numbers in exact order
Mega 6/45 National Lottery
04-11-39-13-33-43
Current Jackpot: Php 46,125,144.00
(1)winner
Winning numbers in any order
Grand 6/55 Lotto
03-35-18-42-25-37
Current Jackpot: P30,000,000.00
(0)winner
Winning numbers in any order
For best results, it is suggested to always employ rumble on the tips above.
* = Hot Numbers
** = Very Hot Numbers
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