VANDALISM on the España Blvd. overpass near UST has never failed to catch my attention for one reason: repainting those parts of the overpass would again cost the government thousands of pesos which could have been used for more worthwhile projects.
But what’s really eye-catching is that the vandalism on the overpass was caused by the militant groups who are calling for the President to resign because of her alleged corruption.
I have nothing against these groups who call for the President’s resignation or the resignation of all government officials, as reflected by the writings on the overpass. They are free to do so since their members have the Constitutionally-protected right to freedom of expression.
But the exercise of their freedom of expression should not be done through vandalism and damage to government property.
Obviously, they hate corrupt government officials, especially those who plunder the government coffers and rob the poor. But I do not know if they realize that they are indirectly helping corrupt government officials to rob the poor.
Vandalizing walls naturally calls for repainting jobs to be paid out of the government’s funds, which were raised from taxes including the value-added tax that the militant groups have branded as anti-poor. Usually, graft starts in this part of the appropriation process when a dishonest government official would overvalue the materials needed for the repainting.
Aside from indirectly causing graft, the act does not help the Philippine government deal with its fiscal problems. Not spending on repainting will help the cash-strapped government.
I hope the militant groups, and any person for that matter, will stop vandalizing government property so that our government officials have one less scheme to commit graft with.
***
Some days ago, I was browsing through the Supreme Court’s website in search for recent jurisprudence on Public International Law. As I read through decisions and resolutions, I came across cases involving government officials who violated the Unexplained Wealth Law and the Anti Graft and Corrupt Practices Act. In all, the cases involved billions of pesos in government funds ending up in their personal accounts.
While reading through those cases, I really felt exasperated. No wonder the Philippines is going down. We have greedy officials as public servants who put their personal interests first.
I just hope that the Philippines will have less of these government officials so that the country can be more progressive.
