IT IS EASY to pity Gina Acosta. Very easy. Watching the special disbursing officer of Vice President Sara Duterte being grilled in the Senate impeachment proceedings, one cannot entirely escape that feeling.
She answers politely and consistently, with a tinge of appeal to emotion about the sorry plight she finds herself in. She is being pried to make statements against her boss, while she tries desperately to protect her by feigning innocence. She knew nothing about the confidential funds. She was merely following orders.
But therein lies the problem. Acosta is the quintessential epitome of the pliant bureaucrat, the ordinary government employee who becomes the perfect instrument for extraordinary corruption. Not necessarily because she steals. Not necessarily because she profits. But because she obeys.
We can grant that Gina Acosta is an honest person. We can grant that she is merely a low-level bureaucrat doing her work. But this is the classic case of evil prospering because honest people keep quiet. Corruption does not survive only because corrupt people are powerful. Corruption survives because honest people surrender their power.
That is the saddest part of all. We should pity Acosta, but not simply because she appears honest and humble. We should pity her because she failed to protect us. She failed to protect our money from corruption.
NOT A DEFENSE
An Special Disbursing Officer or SDO’s role is basically a check-and-balance role. She is supposed to make sure that people’s money is spent correctly. Saying she trusted Colonel Raymund Dante Lachica, gave him blanket authority, and knew nothing about implementation is not a defense. It is an admission. It is an admission that she surrendered people’s money without demanding accountability.
That is precisely how corruption becomes institutionalized. The politician gives the order. The bureaucrat signs the paper. The money disappears. Everybody claims afterward that they were merely doing their jobs.
If there is one thing we should learn from Acosta’s testimony, it is this: low-level bureaucrats have tremendous power to stop corruption. They can nip corruption in the bud. They can refuse to sign. They can demand documentation. They can ask questions. They can say no.
And this goes beyond Acosta. The SDOs in the Office of the President under BBM should examine their own roles. The SDOs of senators and congresspeople now questioning Acosta should examine theirs as well. As other testimonies suggest, what happened here may be happening throughout the government.
Their allegiance should not be to those who appointed them. Their allegiance should be to the Filipino people.
That is why Acosta’s story deserves pity. Not merely the pity reserved for an ordinary person trapped by powerful people. It deserves the deeper pity reserved for honest people who discover too late that silence itself has consequences.
MORE LIKE ACOSTA
Every government employee can become Gina Acosta. Every honest bureaucrat can face the same pressure to obey, to look away, to keep quiet.
Low-level bureaucrats can stop governmental corruption.
If only honest people would not keep quiet.
Pity the Filipino people for the silence of the honest.
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