Editorial - Kleptocracy and the rotten ruling system:
The ugly face of bureaucrat capitalism under the reactionary Estrada regime

Basahin ang artikulong ito sa Pilipino

Because the Philippine economy is backward and semifeudal, the protection and expansion of the economic interests of the ruling classes is decisively tied to their political control or influence over the government and bureaucracy. Bureaucrat capitalism is concomitant to imperialist and feudal exploitation and oppression of the people.

Kleptocracy, or a system of government run by thieves, prevails under a bureaucrat capitalist regime. The bureaucracy is awash with corruption, influence-peddling, contract-fixing and other rotten practices especially by its highest officials.

On this question, no fundamental difference exists among the Marcos, Aquino, Ramos and Estrada regimes. If anything, cases of plunder have progressively worsened. The use of power to gain benefits and privileges for business and amass wealth has become more brazen. On the one hand, this is triggered by the continuous deterioration of the economy.

Intensified bureaucrat capitalist operations, on the other hand, aggravate the economic crisis. Government statistics estimate that as much as $48 billion (more than P2 trillion!) have been stolen by bureaucrats from state coffers in the last 20 years.

The Marcos Regime

In more than a decade of open fascist dictatorial rule under the USMarcos clique, state power and influence were monopolized and brazenly utilized by the Marcoses and their cohorts to pillage funds and enrich themselves.

The Philippine foreign debt grew several times over even as the people were caught in a quagmire of poverty and non-development. The Marcos family and its closest cronies, on the other hand, wallowed in billions of dollars of plundered wealth. Guaranteed by the government, these foreign debts are now being shouldered by the Filipino people. The Jose de Venecia-owned Landoil Inc. and its subsidiaries, for instance, benefited from a P3.134-billion loan from the government. According to the Presidential Commission on Good Government (PCGG), more than P1.1 trillion were looted from the government under the Marcos dictatorship.

The dictatorship seized the properties of rival big capitalists to foster the monopoly rule of its business partners. Numerous burdensome taxes were imposed on the people to replenish funds pillaged from the nation�s coffers. Like the coco levy fund (consisting of a 10% forced deduction from the income of small coconut farmers over a 10-year period), these taxes were pocketed by the dictator�s minions.

... under Aquino

When Corazon Aquino took power in February 1986, she immediately formed the PCGG to investigate, prosecute and recover the ill-gotten wealth of the Marcoses and their accomplices. The stolen Marcos wealth was put under PCGG control pending the investigation and preparation of cases for prosecution. The PCGG sequestered a number of big corporations, stocks and bank deposits owned by pro-Marcos reactionaries.

All things considered, Aquino could have utilized her absolute powers derived from the �Freedom Constitution� to confiscate and declare as public property all of the Marcoses� ill-gotten wealth. The formation of the PCGG thus represented an immediate compromise with the Marcos family. It assured the Marcoses that disposition of their stolen wealth would pass through reactionary judicial bodies packed with Marcos appointees.

Thus, up to the end of the Aquino administration, not a single centavo from the billions of pesos worth of the Marcoses� loot had reverted to the Filipino people. The Aquino regime did not smash the economic and political power of the Marcos family and its cronies. Instead, the PCGG entered into anomalous agreements which allowed the Marcoses and their lackeys to recover economic and political privileges in exchange for a token retrieval of a small portion of their stolen wealth.

Such reluctance on the part of the Aquino regime is inexorably linked to the fact that pro-Aquino bureaucrat capitalists were themselves benefiting immensely from the status quo. They utilized their power to monopolize favors and privileges in procuring contracts, loans and other advantages bestowed by government to private business. Aquino�s relatives and friends jockeyed for control of the sequestered Marcos corporations, stocks and real estate. International aid and new loans from Japan and the US were funneled to a select group of businesses owned by the so-called Kamag-anak, Inc.

Under the Aquino regime emerged a new division of the ruling system�s dwindling spoils among reactionary factions. The door was flung open to allow benefits to flow towards those who had been disfranchised by the Marcos regime. Pledges to wipe out anomalies in government were abandoned. Aquino simply served as a figurehead in the transition from the rotten bureaucrat capitalist Marcos regime towards an even more rotten bureaucrat capitalist and fascist regime without Marcos.

... and under Ramos

Gen. Fidel Ramos provided a continuum between the fascist Marcos dictatorship and subsequent regimes.

Ramos feigned opposition to the Marcos legacy. As president of the reactionary government, he allowed the repatriation of the Marcos family and the remains of the deposed dictator. Under his regime, efforts to recover the Marcoses� stolen loot suffered further reversals.

Settlements were arranged to restore control of plundered businesses and real estate to the Marcoses and their minions. In April 1998, Eduardo Cojuangco was allowed to regain control of 20% of San Miguel Corporation stocks which he seized during the Marcos dictatorship using the coco levy fund. Recovery of their stolen wealth laid the ground for their ultimate political rehabilitation. Imelda and Bongbong Marcos became members of congress aside from other pro-Marcos politicians like Edgardo Angara, Joseph Estrada, Francisco Tatad, Rodolfo Albano, Blas Ople and many others.

Contrary to the �clean� image Ramos likes to project, the biggest cases of corruption occurred during his regime. Bureaucrat capitalists, big compradors and foreign capitalists took advantage of the privatization program to lay their hands on prime real estate, strategic corporations and public institutions such as Fort Bonifacio, the Philippine National Oil Company, Manila Waterworks and Sewerage System, Philippine Airlines and Manila Hotel.

Public biddings were rigged to make sure that contracts of sale were cornered by a select group of Ramos cronies. Ramos himself meddled in such contracts: In the case of the scandalous PEA-Amari land deal, an estimated P3 billion worth of kickbacks were pocketed by Ramos, de Venecia and other high officials of the government and the ruling Lakas- NUCD Party.

Like Marcos� and Aquino�s minions, Ramos� stooges had a big edge in securing loans and business privileges. It is estimated that up to P100 billion in loans were granted by government institutions to big business friends of Ramos. The latter belong to the so-called �Team Philippines�, a group that was consistently part of Ramos� entourage in his travels abroad to search for foreign capitalist partners.

Crisis and the Rotten Estrada Government

The ruling system is in the depths of crisis. It is impossible to prevent the putrid stench of bureaucrat capitalist operations from coming out. Dwindling spoils have pushed bureaucrat capitalists to furiously race against each other, edging out rivals in cornering the biggest share of wealth, property and privilege.

The return of the Marcoses attests to the absence of any fundamental change in the reactionary system. The method by which they returned�brazen and scandalous as it was�proves that the entire system is rotten to its very core. Corruption and bureaucratic plunder of state coffers continue unabated, with officials relishing the perks of power more than ever.

Reactionaries worried about being disfranchised from the bureaucracy are pitching their voices in condemning the �return of cronyism�. Their interests are at risk in the face of Estrada�s contemptuous use of power.

These developments occur amid a most intense economic crisis. According to the International Monetary Fund, Philippine foreign debt has reached $51 billion. The government is expected to incur a budget deficit of up to P40-70 billion this year. Ramos left behind only a handful of public property which could be sold to effect a reprieve from the crisis. In Asia, the much-vaunted �emergent markets� have sunk and the illusion of economic development has been dispelled. Despite all this, Estrada shall pursue the policy of denationalization, liberalization, privatization and deregulation� policies which have driven the economy deeper into crisis and imposed greater hardships on the people.

Due to the intensity of the crisis, the despoliation of government funds can only attain more scandalous proportions. Reactionaries in power will be more brazen in their use of bureaucracy and influence to amass wealth.

There is fertile ground for the rise of anomalies more pernicious than the PEA-Amari scam. Cojuangco has already grabbed San Miguel Corporation. If not for the scandal it raised, Manuel Villar, new Speaker of the House and the biggest among Estrada�s stooges, would have cornered a P1-billion loan from the Social Security System for his moribund Manuela Corporation.

There is less room for an amicable sharing of funds and state privileges among reactionaries. The crisis and the brazenness of the new ruling clique will push the anti-Estrada reactionaries to �challenge� the new president.

Estrada has been attempting to eliminate the �pork barrel� (funds allotted for congressional projects and a frequent source of corruption) which has been traditionally used by reactionaries to amicably share the spoils of public office. Taking advantage of popular sentiments against the �pork barrel� and widespread corruption in congress, Estrada�s ultimate objective is not to do away with corruption, but to centralize it in Malaca�ang. Estrada will be able to exercise control over these funds through his direct leadership over the Department of Interior and Local Government which handles infrastructure projects that serve as milking cows.

Down with bureaucrat capitalism!

When it comes to fundamental social questions, however, there is unity among opposing factions of the ruling class. Their contest for power does not diminish their oneness in exploiting and oppressing the people.

All of them are staunch puppets of US imperialism.Like all bureaucrat capitalists, Estrada passes on the entire burden of crisis to the people. �Tighten your belts�, he admonishes.

But the people have nothing to gain in exchange for the sacrifices they are made to shoulder. All of Estrada�s promises and gimmickry are for nought since he has manifested early on his puppetry to imperialism and declared that he would perpetuate existing pro-foreign and anti-people policies.The people have nothing to expect from a government that represents US imperialism and the exploiting classes. Under Estrada, a more miserable life awaits the people. Bureaucrat capitalism is a burden and a destructive force that ruins the people�s livelihood. In the eyes of the masses, the ruling system becomes even more despicable. As workers and peasants agonize in their hunger, bureaucrats in power obsess themselves with satisfying their gluttonous appetites. Such open plunder and thievery accelerates the decay of the ruling system. It is digging for itself an ever deeper grave. Thus, the people are more than ever convinced of the need to persevere in revolutionary struggle, to thoroughly eliminate corruption and change society.

09 July 1998
English Edition

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