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BY NEIL HONEYMAN
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Tuesday, March 6, 2018
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I AM GLAD that President Duterte has taken seriously the recently announced results from Transparency International in which the Philippines ranks 111th out of 180 countries.
Everybody would like to see less corruption.
President Duterte calls on all of us to fight corruption. Well said. What is needed is a more cohesive dialogue between the populace and government instrumentalities. This would engender less corruption.
It is also necessary, if we are to reduce corruption, for us to show that we shall not tolerate being in a position where we have to acquiesce to misconduct by those who believe they can get away with their corrupt practices. It would be helpful if we can transcend our cultural norms wherein it is considered wrong for us to ‘raise our tone’ when being confronted with a situation involving graft. There are occasions where showing anger in public can be effective. Humiliating the corrupt is a weapon we should use.
An achievable corruption reduction would be for us to improve from 111th to 80th in four years. This would probably place us ahead of Indonesia and Thailand. We would be reasonably placed in the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN). Singapore, Brunei, and Malaysia would be the only less corruption countries.
To reduce corruption, it is vital that probity prevails. We tend to focus on corruption in the public sector. But it is prevalent in the private sector as well.
At the heart of corruption is the inappropriate sense of ascendancy by one person over another. If we are to reduce corruption, we must minimize unjustified ascendancy.
Organizations need to have enhanced communication mechanisms so that there is a better flow of accurate information. Much private sector corruption arises from miscommunications within the organization. Some banks have addressed this problem by having customer relations staff. This improves communications between banks and their clients. This in turn reduces the possibility of malpractice from bank officials.
A CASE STUDY
On Aug. 29, 2008 a family member completed formalities and paid $10,000 for a single premium life insurance policy. This transaction took place in BDO’s Hilado branch, Bacolod City. The money was paid to the PhilamLife representative based in the branch. (BDO had a Bancassurance relationship with PhilamLife at the time).
We never received any receipt for the transaction. Nor did we ever receive the policy documents. No contracts were ever consummated by PhilamLife. Eventually, received a partial refund for the failed transaction. It was unreasonable for PhilamLife to withhold money when we had not received the policy documents.
I have no wish to harm PhilamLife but believe that we are owed an agreed explanation as to what went wrong.
In 2014, PhilamLife’s Operations Manager sent me a “quit claim” form dated Sept. 19, 2008 which bore my signature. This document is a fake. I believe my signature was obtained from my BDO signature card. I did not sign the quit claim form.
I believe that there are those in PhilamLife who know that the quit claim form is false. In a public communication, PhilamLife’s lawyer says I am making a serious allegation. I know. But it happens to be true.
My search for the truth had some support within PhilamLife. In September 2010 I had a meeting with Phil Hayman, chief distribution officer.
“What do you want?” he asked.
“The truth,” I replied.
“So do I,” he concurred.
But he never found it and resigned a few months later.
My search for the agreed truth continued via the Insurance Commission. On Jan. 5, 2015, Commissioner Emmanuel F. Dooc sent my observations to PhilamLife with instructions to reply to me “within 10 days.” PhilamLife did not comply. As far as I know, the Insurance Commission made no progress.
If we are to reduce corruption in the insurance sector, then the Insurance Commission must take seriously the constitutionally enshrined commitment to consumer protection.
Both the PNP and Barangay 17, Bacolod City provided help in trying to cause PhilamLife to face up to misconduct from its low-level staff but to no avail.
To fight corruption we need more tenacity from relevant government instrumentalities.
Corruption is bullying. To reduce corruption, we need to show that we are not to be bullied./PN
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