The President of the United States of America and the President of the Philippines have a lot in common. Both are young reformers. Both were elected because of a deep emotional appeal to the people who voted for them. President Benigno Simeon Cojuangco Aquino III was primarily elected because his mom was the least corrupt President the Philippines has ever had, and people remember her fondly. President Aquino didn't have a lot of political experience. He is dealing with a situation where corruption is an every day way of life. I've written about how I have paid an extra 1500 to 2000 pesos to a fixer to get my visa extension processed faster. The fixer keeps some of the money for themselves, and gives some to each of the people who allow the application to be processed out of turn and waive the required 1 hour wait after you get approval for your extension request form and have paid the fee. This means that someone else's application has to wait a little longer to get processed while the fixer's clients are expedited. President Aquino has asked the people to start reducing corruption at the basic level of not using the service of a fixer when they have to deal with the government. The corruption I have described seems innocuous, but if you look at it as the fixer running the department and disrupting the work flow of the office, and think of the hardship paying that extra "fee" is for most Filipinos, you can see how harmful it is. The biggest ethical issue here is that the fixer gets a government employee to break or ignore rules and policies. If they will allow my application to be exempt from the mandatory 1 hour wait, what else are they willing to do for money? Would they let a terrorist get a visa for enough money? Corruption has to stop, both here and in the US. President Aquino is asking all Filipinos to stop using the services of a fixer as a first step toward ending corruption in government. If there is no demand for the service, it will cease to be an attractive career choice.
When I applied for my last visa extension, I filled out the form myself and did not have any trouble getting it accepted. Grace and I went to Starbucks across the street and had a leisurely lunch so that we got back about the time the 1 hour was up. It was actually another 30 minutes before my papers were processed, probably because someone else was using the fixer to get fast service. Now people will only support this initiative if government offices work efficiently and give reasonable service. The Bureau of Foreign Affairs is in charge of passport applications, and they have designed their process to prevent fixers from having access to the office. They also require appointments to accept applications and have the process as standardized and streamlined as possible. Grace got her processing done in a little less than two hours. Once the application is accepted, it takes 20 working days to get your passport, or you can pay extra to get it in 10 working days. If all government offices attempted to make their service reasonably user friendly and gave reasonable customer service, it would eliminate the perception that a fixer could make life easier and was worth the fee.
There are many other areas in Philippine government where corruption is a way of life, and President Aquino has more power over Philippine government than the U.S. President has over the U.S. government, so he is making progress in some areas. Customs is terribly corrupt and what you are charged for import taxes seems to depend on the mood of the agent who processes your shipment. President Aquino fired the head of the Customs Service and appointed someone he hopes will clean up the corruption. Of course President Obama can't do a lot of the things Mr. Aquino can because of the limits on the power of the American President. But even with his wider powers, President Aquino is not going to be able to clean up government corruption by himself, and it looks like the legislature here is as corrupt as the U.S. Congress, and his efforts are going to fall just as short as President Obama is perceived to be by American voters who just don't understand the political realities.
Now people will say, "But we gave him a Democratic majority in Congress, why didn't he get more done?" Well, you have Democrats like Larry Kissel of the 8th Congressional District in North Carolina. Now most of the district is Cabarrus County and the City of Concord, but a majority of the votes come from rural areas. People in Concord mostly support the President's platform, but Representative Kissel knows that if he wants to get reelected, he can't support the programs that will really help people because his rural constituants think that helping others is socialism. Interestingly enough, the people in the Buckle of the Bible Belt seem to be really selective in their reading of the Bible and forget about all the lessons Jesus taught about the importance of helping others, even when the only reward is knowing you did the right thing. So although there is an apparent Democratic majority in Congress, the reality is that for a host of reasons, President Obama can't count on a lot of the members of his party to support the party platform. You can forgive Representative Kissel for breaking ranks by saying that he is representing the people of his district, and that is true, but he is letting down the rest of America by failing to vote for measures that would be good for most Americans. There are many Larry Kissels in Congress, and while he is indeed representing his constituants, other members of Congress are on the payroll of various special interest groups and corporations. If you break down prior occupations of members of Congress, I believe "lawyer" is first and "insurance broker or agent" is second. Is it surprising that it has always been difficult to get any real insurance reform or regulation through Congress?
So the message I want to leave you with is that you can't blame the President of either the U.S. or the Philippines for not getting their agendas approved and made law when voters elect legislators who will not support their party leadership or are more interested in the interests of a corporation than what is good for the people they represent. If you want to get the things that are broken in government fixed, you have to stop being comfortable with the status quo and do some work to help elect honest people with the intelligence and wisdom to use government resources efficiently to help the greatest number of citizens. You have to get out and work for candidates, go vote even when it is cold or rainy, and above all, take back government from the special interest groups and corporations. Please get informed on the issues, where candidates stand on the issues, and then, please, please, please go vote!
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