The ridiculous escape of a Jemaah Islamiah bomber and two other terror suspects from Camp Crame last week proved to my mind that the Philippines has (unfortunately) become a banana republic.

I’m sure some of my more cynical readers will tell me that the Philippines has long been one, but watching the reenactment on television of how easy it was for the three terrorists to escape from their lightly guarded cell, sneaking past just two guards who were supposedly asleep at the time, then just sauntering out of the building and over the wall that surrounds the camp, made me so mad. Mad at the stupid police that were supposedly guarding them, mad at whoever decided to keep them overnight at such a minimum security facility, and mad at a whole law enforcement system that is so riddled with corruption that any wacky escape story is unfortunately not a joke but reality.

The Indonesian terrorist Fathur Rohman Al-Ghozi had already confessed to unleashing a series of bombs in December 2000 in Manila that killed several people. I remember those attacks well as I was in Manila at the time, and remember seeing the bloody images of blown up bodies on the LRT train on television, and first hearing of the blasts from a taxi driver in Makati.

Along with Al-Ghozi, two Filipino Muslim terrorists also escaped, namely Abdul Mukim Ong Edris and Omar Opik Lasal. Now a military intelligence agent is claiming that Lasal was in fact an undercover asset of the military, sent in to infiltrate Al-Ghozi’s world and send back information about upcoming terror acts that were being planned. Now all three of their faces are on wanted posters across the nation, with a 10-million-peso reward for Al-Ghozi’s capture, 3 million pesos for Edris and 2 million for Lasal.

At the height of the US-led war against terror, this escape made President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo look extremely incompetent, and put the whole country’s seriousness in fighting terror in doubt. That the escape took place on the same day that Arroyo was receiving Australian Prime Minister John Howard didn’t improve matters. Australian newspapers were quick to lambaste the Philippines for the incident, speculating that widespread corruption had allowed the three criminals to escape. Indeed, a rumor soon floated that $10 million had been paid to policemen to allow the three to escape. This figure does not seem far-fetched if you remember that JI has been linked to the Al-Qaeda terror network, which has hundreds of millions of dollars at its disposal. Ten million dollars seems like peanuts if put in that context, especially when you consider that it was allegedly paid for the freedom of one of Asia’s most dangerous men.

Ninety police intelligence agents have been removed from their posts in a reshuffle following Al-Ghozi and Co.’s escape from Camp Crame. Many observers are wondering why the president hasn’t fired the head of national police, Director General Hermogenes Ebdane. He is now leading the manhunt for Al-Ghozi, with reports claiming that the Indonesian terrorist is still in the Philippines. Little good that does the nation. Al-Ghozi should have been locked up in isolation in a high security jail, away from the general prison population.

***

‘Unexplained Wealth’ Rap Long Overdue

The corruption charges filed this week against four Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) and Bureau of Customs officials were long overdue. It’s a well-known fact that these two agencies are among the most corrupt (along with the Land Transportation Office) in the government today.

I read with incredulity how these officials, who make only around 25,000 pesos a month each, were able to afford luxury homes, a fleet of 12 luxury cars, and $3.8 million in a bank account! When you think of the high incidence of smuggling and the meager amounts of income and sales taxes actually collected, it’s not hard to realize how these officials became so rich, so fast. Rich individuals and sleazy businessmen obviously pay off BIR and Customs officials on a regular basis so that they will pay less, if any, tax and so that they can import commercial goods at lower duty rates.

The truth is that the government should have a permanent office that conducts such lifestyle checks on all government employees, especially the higher officials. These should be done on a yearly basis, and anyone with unexplained wealth and assets should be sacked from their posts and possibly have criminal charges placed against them.

I know that some will say that senior government officials should get bigger salaries to make them less vulnerable to corruption. I agree that this would work with some officials, but with these four who were just charged I doubt that it would have made any dent in their voracious appetite for wealth. Say their salaries were doubled to P50,000 a month each, would this have stopped them from acquiring so much illicit wealth? I seriously doubt it. Nevertheless, the Philippine government should start a real crackdown on corruption within its ranks. The problem is that corruption is so widespread and institutionalized in daily Filipino life that it’s hard to know where to start first.

***

Comments or questions? Email the author at: [email protected].

***

Visit the author’s website at www.manilamoods.com to read past columns.