The root of poverty and all

THE recent Anti-Corruption Summit, in London, might have posted another landmark in the global movement against corruption with its proposal for all countries to establish a public register of foreign real-estate holdings. The establishment of the register in London, said UK Prime Minister David Cameron, meant, “Corrupt individuals and countries will no longer be able to move, launder, and hide illicit funds through the London property market…” Several countries pledged to launch such registers. But the United States was not among them. It then seems that any Filipinos, who has laundered ill-gotten wealth through the acquisition of mansions and shopping malls in the United States, can heave a sigh of relief.

The global anti-corruption movement, according to international observers, may be traced for its origin to the decision of Swiss banks to cooperate with the Philippine government in recovering the hundreds of millions of dollars stashed by Philippine dictator President Marcos in Swiss vaults. The unprecedented media coverage of the EDSA revolution of 1986 and the sheer size of the Marcos loot, eclipsing the amount that any previous dictator hid in Swiss banks, caused Switzerland to fear a reputation as a “pirate’s haven.” They thus expressed an unprecedented readiness to turn over the said seeds of plunder to the Philippine government provided the latter can prove its ownership in a court of law.