Corruption and the capital markets

Corruption and the capital markets | Daily Tribune

What is corruption? The etymology of the word is “corrumpere,” a Latin word which means to “break in pieces, destroy, ruin, spoil, or adulterate.”

Last weekend, I am proud to say that together with thousands of Filipinos, we took to the streets to demonstrate and vent our frustrations over what has emerged as the singular most hated group of people, from both the private sector and the different branches of government, who have been on a rampage, stealing food from the mouths of the poor; depriving shelter over the heads of the impoverished; preventing adequate medical care for the sick; hindering funding for decent classrooms and teachers for our impoverished young and uneducated, destroying their prospects for a brighter future; and for so many other critical necessities needed for our countrymen to survive the dismal grind of making both ends meet.

All throughout the march along EDSA, you could constantly hear either prayers of supplication to the Blessed Virgin Mary by religious clerics, students and alumni from different schools, or chants of “ikulong ang mga kurakot” mostly by irate citizens, both young and old alike.

As usual, as is our naturally joyful nature, we Filipinos are somehow able to turn a potentially explosive situation of what should have been an angry mob — similar to what recently transpired in Nepal and Indonesia — into a festive gathering of celebrities and nondescript unknowns, families, friends and loved ones, marching as one in a united display of condemnation of corruption.

These heartless and unconscionable scoundrels that have earned the ire of millions of Filipinos have certainly destroyed, ruined, and broken into pieces whatever remaining respect our people had for our supposed “fathers of the nation” who should have had the best interests of our country in the performance of their sworn duties.

But no, instead, trillions of our tax payments went into the pockets of apparently a well-oiled syndicate of elected “servants of the people”; conniving government functionaries, and heartless snakes in the private construction industry firms, acting in concert for years that have apparently been criminally milking the government coffers dry.

It was only the blatant, ostentatious display of ill-gotten wealth by the now infamous duo of favored contractors of flood control projects that triggered an outcry of rage amidst the thousands wallowing in flooded communities, as if Mother Nature unleashed its spite for these excesses with back-to-back typhoons inundating our country in the process.

Now, you might wonder what all these have to do with the capital markets. Plenty.

With the ensuing surfacing of scandal after scandal involving billions and even trillions in stolen tax revenues, any bilateral creditor, foreign buyer of our country’s bond issuances, or any prospective equity foreign investor would be nuts to put in good money after what already seems to be a precariously unstable situation that has been exacerbated by the political drama that is now fodder for the opposition with a moist eye toward 2028. These folks, unfortunately, may not exactly be our anointed saviors since these ghastly shenanigans apparently started in earnest during the previous regime of the opposition.

Already, there had been newswire reports about a supposed friendly ally — since our country was the first nation to send a contingent of military personnel to help stave off a communist onslaught on this country’s fledgling democracy in the early 1950s — withdrawing its commitment to extend a multimillion-dollar bilateral loan to our country.

Such a report, if accurate, any investment banker worth his salt can tell you could very well trigger a wave of cross default scenarios which could inhibit other countries from following through on whatever bilateral support or prospective investment either in a joint venture or participation in an IPO was being contemplated prior to this current brouhaha; to hold back on their plans and wait until the dust settles perhaps even all the way up to 2028.

That would be an intolerable situation for our country because until such time our capital market will likely continue to be in the doldrums. But nevertheless, we must be optimistic that with God’s grace, we will collectively wake up as a nation, regain our senses, be more vigilant, survive this current crisis, and never again allow this to happen.

Until next week… OBF!