Japan is as scandal-ridden as the Philippines, not only with the bickering factions of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) engaged in fiddling with donated money but also with executives who want foreign projects funded with Tokyo loans to push through.
While traditional Japanese politicians, after they are shamed and linked to scams, would commit hara-kiri and their followers would complete the ritual with seppuku, younger executives would bow their heads to apologize or get themselves suspended from work. Here in the Philippines, officials would even brag that bad publicity makes them more famous and they could do routine TikTok moves to scandalize the nation further. Take the case of Sara Zimmerman Duterte Carpio, who did a macabre turn at Tik Tok rather than answer allegations that she had frittered away hundreds of millions at the Office of the Vice President (OVP) and the Department of Education (DepEd.)
In Tokyo, an official of the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) leaked information regarding a bid for a railway rehabilitation project in the Philippines financed by low-interest yen loans and the government suspended the executive for one, Mainichi Japan and Kyodo News reported on Oct. 15, 2024. JICA imposed a one-month suspension on the official in July after he leaked cost estimates and other project details to a Tokyo-based construction consulting firm, Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Kazuhiko Aoki said.
A joint venture involving the consulting firm won the bid conducted by the Philippine government in 2019 and signed a contract worth about 1.5 billion yen ($10 million) the following year. Subjected to JICA’s investigation, the official confessed that he had leaked the information due to “a need to expedite the project.” It was a black eye for JICA, which supervises the bidding for infrastructure projects in various countries. Most of Japan’s assistance range from conducting feasibility studies and the design of projects that are usually won by Japanese companies. Tied loans are the rule in Tokyo rather than the exception.
“The government takes the incident very seriously and will closely supervise JICA’s measures to prevent recurrence,” Aoki said. He vowed that the agency shall strengthen staff training on confidentiality obligations and other regulations and ensure thorough information management. The Japanese have had a mournful experience with the Marcos dictatorship, when the rule at the Department of Public Works for Japanese-funded projects was for a 15% cut right off the bat. The Japanese even coined a word to describe the scheme.
Here, a top government official was said to have pleaded with his superiors to allow him to still freelance on the rail sector, and Palace officials were dumbfounded to hear that the fellow still wanted to profit from a side hustle despite getting more than P300,000 monthly from his official job and still get a steady dose of schlong with the rail tracks. The wonder of wonders is why the Marcos Jr. administration trusts this fellow, who is notorious for abandoning his bosses at the worst time and has been linked with a syndicate profiting from illegal gambling.
While the JICA executive was punished for leaking information to a company to speed up the railway rehabilitation project, this particular pencil pusher was condemned by a foreign company (not Japanese) for making life hell for them after winning a contract. The company said the fellow was also associated with a Filipino influence peddler for online gambling and a corrupt politician who now boasts of a spanking yacht.
Sara shares good company with this hustler, his godfather-influence peddler, a budding foul-mouthed politician with low levels on intelligence (IQ) and emotional quotients (EQ.) They are ordinands to the Sacred Order of Dishonesty (SOD) while the JICA executive is just a supernumerary. After her Tik Tok shtick on the plump side as the House investigation into her fiscal mismanagement, she might try a cameo in some slapstick to please her shills and the Duterte army of crones and trolls that came back from the sleep of the dead. In cash, they trust.
