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SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 1, 2009

Profile

Emmanuel Santos
is a senior policy officer in the Government of South Australia. He gained an MS in Public Policy and
Management from Carnegie Mellon Adelaide and a Masters in Development Economics from the
University of the Philippines. He will be shortly commencing a doctoral thesis on governance and
development issues. The views expressed here are his own and do not reflect that of his employer.

Aquino on Countering the Calculus of Corruption

At the press conference following his announced bid for the presidency in 2010, Benigno
"Noynoy" Aquino III revealed what could be a guiding principle in his approach to good
governance.

(Right: Senator Benigno "Noynoy" Aquino III announced back in September his
intention to seek the presidency of the Philippines in the election of May 2010.)

When asked about his solution to widespread corruption, he said firstly that he would emulate
his mother, former President Corazon Aquino, whose reputation for simple living engendered
greater honesty among public servants. Secondly, beyond appeals to a concern for the
greater good, he would vigorously uphold an enforcement of the rules which would not only
entail swift justice in prosecuting those who break the code, but incentives to those who abide
by it. He called this his “carrot and stick” approach.

The test of this hypothesis will come no less from his office should he be elected which now
seems very likely given his astronomic lead in the polls. In the past, winning and occupying
the highest post in the land has been subject to what economists call an “incentive
incompatible” problem, namely, a misalignment of incentives that ensured a reneging on the
promise to uphold and defend the constitution and the laws of the land.
Given weaknesses in institutions, it has been all too easy to “take” rather than “make” while in
office. The so-called checks on the excesses have been ineffective under the structure of
rent-seeking incentives at play.

But now Filipinos could be witnessing the birth of public stewardship motivated by a true
sense of noblesse oblige. Self-restraint might be the only effective means to check executive
greed. In the past every contender and pretender to higher office has feigned a sense of
noble intentions. The purifying trials of the Aquino family under the repressive Marcos regime
may provide the most authentic case of altruism at work.

Turning their backs on the honest democratic legacy of their parents would prove too costly
for the Aquino children because it would mean nullifying the sacrifices made by their parents
all throughout their formative years.

The late Senator Benigno Aquino Jr set off a virtuous cycle of willling self-sacrifice that was
“gifted” to the Filipino people. They reciprocated first by expressing public grief and outrage
over his assassination, and then by endowing the presidency to his wife, Corazon, who in turn
renewed the cycle of giving back by restoring democratic freedoms curtailed under the
dictatorial regime of her predecessor.

(Right: The assassination of former Senator Benigno "Ninoy" Aquino, Jr on 21


August 1983 shortly after being escorted by airport security off his plane at the
Manila International Airport triggered widespread public outrage against the
Marcos regime.)

Now it seems the people in honour of her own personal sacrifice following her untimely
demise due to colon cancer are about to reciprocate the Aquinos once over by entrusting the
presidency to the only son of the family, Benigno III.

This politics of exchange is not the debased form of transactional politics that is common
among the ruling elites and their constituents, a practice that has left the Philippines
languishing at the bottom of Transparency International's corruption league table for the Asia
Pacific.

Rather, the calculus of exchange that seems to have been initiated by the Aquinos follows the
pattern of “gift-giving” in close-knit cultures where the commodities exchanged cannot be
valued and where renewing ties by re-investing in social capital is the key.

This new and ongoing dynamic that has sparked a sense of altruistic behaviour among those
engaged in the "political game” is set to counter the vicious cycle of corruption and rent-
seeking that has been entrenched in the governance arrangements of political institutions
operating at the moment.

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