EXPLAINER: Cronyism: The Emergence of Corruption during Marcos Regime
PHILIPPINES -- As we all know, corruption is a dishonest conduct by those in power, typically involving bribery. For many years, the Philippines suffered from widespread corruption either through the means of graft, bribery, embezzlement, backdoor deals, nepotism and patronage. The country’s politicians faced lawsuits regarding corruption in the previous years. Some got away with all the accusations, while others were impeached for their misconduct. Until now, the country faces the problem of corruption and to most Filipinos, corruption became a normal part of the culture.
The emergence of corruption in the government sometimes were dealt immediately. On the other hand, some have used power to turn the table (opportunity) towards their own betterment. An example of this is the late former President Marcos. According to the article of Chicago Tribune entitled Marcos Graft Staggering, “a prominent Filipino business man said that the Marcos style of management was like a wheel, he is the hub of the wheel. There were a lot of spokes leading to him, but the spokes didn’t touch each other”. In 1965, he won the presidential election and became the 10th President of the Philippines, which started his first term in governance. In 1969, Marcos ran for a second term and won against other candidates. In 1972, he declared Martial Law, which critics say enabled the rise of cronyism as stated in the article, Evolution of the Pork Barrel System in the Philippines.
During the Marcos regime, the Congress was abolished. This lead to the twist of the pork barrel of the country. Instead of the Congress, the pork barrel were handled by a single person, the President himself. Because of that most of Marcos’ family members and supporters started to engage with him. With the current state of the country that time cronyism started. It was then, that the trusted Lieutenants and other men of Marcos started to call themselves his cronies. One had to be within the circle of power and influence of the former president to enjoy certain privileges. The cronies then, having the power used this advantage to raise money for their own industry and business aiding in the corruption.
The pork barrel became a big issue and was widely criticized by the Filipino public. In an article of Inquirer.net entitled “Regime of Marcoses, cronies, kleptoracy” the Late Senate President Jovito Salonga challenged Imelda’s claim that their family did not corrupt any money from the government. He also added that the Marcoses started raiding the government on his first term for Imelda’s funds to finance her foreign trips.
Concurrently, creation of monopolies emerged in certain industries, benefiting Marcos’s cronies.
Eduardo Cojuangco became the “Coconut King”. He became the head of the Philippine Coconut Authority and managed the export of coconut oil. He was later on in charge of the Philippine Racing Commission. Antonio Floriendo, on the other hand, was called the “Banana King”. He made automobiles available to Marcos for campaign. Marcos deeded a land to Floriendo. He cleared the land and began growing bananas and later acquired a U.S company, wherein Marcos was a silent partner.
Herminio Disini was given the name “Tobacco King”. He had his fortune when the Martial Law was implemented. The twist was that the Martial Law imposed a 100-percent duty on imported materials of his competitors in the cigarette business, but not on him. The “Pharmaceutical King” name was given to Jose Campos, on the other hand Robert Benedicto were called the “Sugar King”. Campos is the godfather of Marcos’ children. Marcos granted exclusive import licenses to United Laboratories where Campos was the head that time. With this United Labs sales grew up to $70 million annually. Benedicto on the other side is a law school classmate and fraternity brother of Marcos. He owned the Philippine National Bank which was the source of the alleged slush fund used by the Marcos family to pay for their personal travels.
Cronyism demonstrated the political shrewdness of the Marcos patriarch. He and his cronies were able to use some techniques to cover-up the corruption they did during that time – they used fake names to open Swiss accounts where they put huge sums of money; they also raid companies and used dummies. The assets accumulated by Marcos especially his wife Imelda Marcos were also deemed to be bought by public funds. After the regime of Marcos, certain illegal assets of him together with his cronies were found. The Presidential Commission Good Government (PCGG) filed cases against them at the Sandiganbayan. Until now no one has been convicted or sent to jail considering that it was the biggest corruption case.
Cronyism and corruption continue to hound the Philippine government, though even after the Marcos regime. The problem is rooted on our government’s thinking and weak moral fiber. The government must sustain economic profits without sacrificing ethics – this is how the country could ultimately ease the rampant problem of corruption.--The Quintessence