The Society of Honor posted: " Analysis and Opinion By Joe America Excellence is driven by constant self-assessment. Transparency. Objectivity. Rigorous study. But the Duterte Administration does little of this. Energy is spent blaming people, making excuses, hiding data (the pr"
Excellence is driven by constant self-assessment. Transparency. Objectivity. Rigorous study. But the Duterte Administration does little of this. Energy is spent blaming people, making excuses, hiding data (the price of Sinovac; how intelligence funds are spent), and snowing citizens with propaganda.
The Government takes credit where blame is due. It promotes a 'scam' agenda that is plainly untruthful and dysfunctional, accepting of corruption and incompetence (recycled failed executives), and undermining the high ideals of a constitutional democracy.
What are some of the biggest scams undertaken by the National Government? In the interest of this poor, dilapidated, accountability-starved nation, we seek to identify them and thereby impose a little accountability, from the outside looking in.
The Nominees
The nominees for "Biggest Scam" competition in the Philippines are listed below, in no particular order. A brief statement of the Government's acclaimed 'excellent achievement' from each nominee is also shown.
Drug war: drugs are eliminated; usage and supplies dwindle.
China friendship: friendship produces significant social, economic, and security advantages.
Covid model country: covid is substantially eliminated from the Philippines as a health risk.
Anti-terrorism Law: terrorist threats are eliminated.
Build Build Build: significant infrastructure building is started and construction churns out projects and jobs.
Intelligence funds: funds are used to keep government informed and the people secure.
Bong Go: the Presidential Assistant is a positive catalyst for the Nation's growth and success.
Presidential excellence: the President drives the Philippines to prosperity, unity, and security.
Core need security: food supplies, electricity, health care, and water are abundant and reasonably priced.
These performance targets were identified through examination of the gap between braggadocio and results in National Government activities. I floated a preliminary list of 'scams' on Twitter and Facebook and received some additional nominees that are now included.
The Performance Categories
Well, any award competition requires categories of excellence, rather like bikini, gown, or talent performance at Miss Universe. And since these are "scams", we will be looking for bad performance and deceits.
Judging will be on a five-point scale where a 1 means the assessment wasn't too bad, and a 5 means it was horrible.
The four categories of excellence in bad achievement are:
Results: The degree of failure against objectives: Complete, partial, or just a bit.
Monetary cost: Did the effort waste billions or hundreds of millions or just a little?
Lives lost: How many people died? Thousands, hundreds, or just a few?
Damage to the Constitution: How abusive to Constitutional principles was the effort? Huge, moderate, or just little?
The evaluations in each category can be considered preliminary, or open to adjustment, based on comments in response to this article.
The Evaluation Summary
Hear they are! The top scams!!
The following table shows the scores ordered from biggest scam to smallest scam. Discussion follows.
The biggest scam is "Presidential excellence", followed by the "Drug war" and "Covid model country". Build Build Build is the least harmful scam based on the cited ratings.
Discussion
The buck stops with the President, so all the damages from other areas roll up to him. President Duterte's legacy is one of Incompetence, financial waste and corruption, loss of lives, and break-down of Constitutional principles. He is popular, so his poor results are tempered by the fact that people generally are taken in by his charm. That's the scam, isn't it?
The Drug War is worse than a failure. It's a disaster. Drugs have not been reduced or controlled, hundreds of millions of pesos have been spent, and thousands have been killed, 8,000 by police alone. Constitutional due processes are abandoned in favor of police as executioners. No big drug lords are arrested, after five years. The costs, pesos and lives, are huge. It is a master scam.
The Covid Fight has been one of casual National Government arrogance. The disease was taken lightly from testing through vaccinations. The Senate was misled in every hearing. At no time has there been a clear sense of urgency and purpose. With billions spent, the economy is in shambles, over 25,000 are dead, yet Government's position is that it has handled the battle well. This is a total scam. The latest Bloomburg ranking has the Philippines ranked number 52 among 53 rated countries.
Intelligence funds are secret parking places for billions of pesos. There is no accounting, no transparency, for these funds. Most are in the Office of the President, but agencies have them, too. It is suspected that some of the money is used to fund police killings (bonuses) and buy political loyalties. The biggest failing is the total lack of intelligence emerging from intelligence budgets. Policies and decisions are ad lib, seat of the pants decisions. Science is ignored. A huge scam.
Bong Go is everywhere, totally unaccountable to anyone, an ethical abuser of Constitutional values, betraying the Philippines to China, meddling in places where he ought not, and having an unknown - but likely substantial - influence on policies. Former Senator Trillanes has identified possible corruption benefitting his family's construction companies. Trillanes says 6 billion pesos have been directed there. Go is the Chairman of the Senate Health Committee, a job substantially abandoned during a health crisis. Bong Go is a walking, talking scam.
The Anti-Terrorism Law is not used to pinpoint real terrorist threats. It is, from all appearances, used to intimidate critics, jail students and journalists, and shoot indigenous people, apparently to clear them off of lands sought by mining companies. Red-tagging is used as a broad "guilt by list" form of justice, a total breakdown of Constitutional protections. The army is warring on citizens. Police are protecting no one. The Philippines has just dropped to the bottom of 'the safest places on earth'. Huge scam.
China friendship is a deceit aimed at keeping a few people - notably Duterte, Go, and oligarch Dennis Uy - rolling in riches, favor, and power. The policy has pushed the resources of America away from AFP and the people while gaining few funds from China for investment in Build Build Build, and allowing China to maraud freely in Philippine Seas. It seems to have pushed high-quality American vaccines away while bringing in huge amounts of high-priced, weak Sinovac as the vaccine of choice. All this makes no sense at all, for Filipinos. Huge scam.
Core need security is a mess. Water shortages, transportation gridlock, diseased pork and pork shortages, rice imports, electricity brown-outs, and rising inflation. Regulators favor the entitled - the cartels. They do not serve the people. Every involved agency is an incompetent, entangled rat's nest of vested interests. Gross scam.
Build Build Build is an empty shell. The Admin arrogantly shelved Aquino's successful PPP model in favor of foreign funding. But they got nothing from China and the 'dream' projects got bogged down in planning, reality checks, and bidding. They couldn't get going on big projects so they started targeting smaller projects . . . but couldn't get them done, either. The only thing left is to grab credit for the Aquino projects coming to completion. Build is a bust, a total scam.
Conclusion
Most concede that glorious campaign promises from President Duterte were hyperbole. Showmanship. But to come up empty handed after five years, to talk big but deliver small? I think few expected that.
But the truth is in the results. The awards are in.
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