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Nakakahiya. That is the reaction a reasonable man would have
reading yesterday’s headlines about the World Bank suspending $232
million in loans to the Philippines because of allegations of
corruption in major highway projects spanning north and south of the
archipelago.
It is the first time the board of the World Bank
has taken notice of corruption on a large scale on a big infra
project in a borrower country.
To be sure, the World Bank is not exactly clean.
Its previous president, Paul Wolfowitz, was ousted because he
accommodated his girl friend, a bank employee. He gave her a
sinecure, much higher than usual salary, and more perks than her
position or qualifications deserved.
Now, that’s abuse of power and abuse of power
is corruption.
Corruption is not just about kickbacks and
overpricing. It is also about using one’s authority to favor
people close to you or those who you want accommodated. So if
Filipinos are guilty of corruption, the World Bank is as equally
guilty. So accusing the Philippines of corruption is like a pot
calling the kettle black.
Besides, if everything is going right with the
World Bank, how come in 30 years of lending to poor countries, the
absolute number of poor people actually doubled during that period?
Isn’t that incompetence?
And incompetence is a crime probably worse than
corruption because it does the same damage and is committed by
people who are supposed to be competent. Sure, there has been a
dramatic decrease, percentage-wise, in the number of poor
people—defined as those earning a dollar a day or less, but that
is no thanks to the World Bank. The progress happened inspite of the
bank.
Also, don’t be too worried about the World
Bank suspending or withdrawing loans from the Philippines. The bank
has only $80 billion in money for lending to poor countries. China,
supposedly a poor country, has $1.3 trillion in foreign reserves.
China has just formed an investment company with $200 billion in
initial funding to be scattered all over Asia. The World Bank
remains the bastion of first-class imperialism.
Also, most of the Asian countries today have
plenty of money, in fact, more money than they can handle. Look at
their foreign reserves and the dramatic appreciation of their
currencies against the US dollar.
That is a sign of wealth. That is why most of
the borrower Asian countries have prepaid their loans, to lenders
like the World Bank.
The Philippines has $32 billion in foreign
reserves. That is like having a checking account in a bank with that
much money.
How much did the World Bank suspend in loans?
$232 million—not even one percent of $32 billion. My suggestion is
that we refuse the bank’s $232 million and avoid the embarrassment
of being singled out by a bank trying to make up for past
incompetence and past acts of corruption just so it looks good
before the world. We don’t need tobe dangled with pennies and be
slapped in the face before the world.
Return the money
The World Bank, along with its imperialist
partner the IMF, used to lecture developing countries about the
moral hazards of lending. But look at the big western banks. They
are in deep shit. Why? Because of the moral hazard of lending. These
western banks didn’t follow the usual prudential rules about
lending to people who cannot pay the loans in the first place.
Once you get into the exercise of dealing with
the World Bank, you have to meet certain standards of behavior—
standards not even the bank’s biggest owner, America, can follow.
Also, the World Bank has allies, outside of the IMF, to bad-mouth a
supposedly erring borrower country around the world. It has the
western wire services and it has entities like the World Economic
Forum and Transparency International which go around rating
countries they don’t exactly like. Like the Philippines.
A series of corruption scandals has taken their
toll on the Philippines before investors and before the world. The
country fell to No. 131 in the 2007 Corruption Index released by
Transparency International (TI), compared to No. 121 in 2006. The
Philippines is now grouped with Libya, Iran, Burundi and Yemen in
extent of corruption.
The corruption index is part of TI’s 2007
Global Corruption Report, which scored 180 countries on the
perceived degree of corruption as seen by business executives and
analysts.
The corruption index is part of TI’s Global
Corruption Report 2007, which focuses on corruption in the
judiciary. “Corruption is undermining justice in many parts of the
world, denying victims and the accused the basic human right to a
fair and impartial trial,” the report says.
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