Of gossips, rumors in government
TRADE FORUM By Chris Malazarte

If there are ruthless employers, so are ruthless employees. They are a malady to the workplace and whose other business is to mind other people’s business, his boss or his colleagues. While not uncommon in private businesses, but they are quite widespread in government offices.

Back when I was serving the government many years ago, I was appalled by the amount and the ubiquity of controversy and intrigues that thrive in that office. Afternoon breaks are incomplete without talking about the illicit relationships that’s going on in another office or rumors of a payola that took place in the men’s room. It was all in a day’s work for most people that they remember names better than their job descriptions.

If government is worried about corruption we have to equally worry about gossip. Gossips, rumors and intrigues is something we just couldn’t ignore. I’m not saying that all government offices are what I described earlier. But pardon my candor, most of them resemble that of a typical government office littered with rumor-mongerers that sometimes decisions are based on hearsay rather than facts. I’ve seen them happen. It happened to me once and I’ve seen these things happen too, in other people.

In my case for example, my consultancy contract for an LGU was not renewed because the mayor was fed with some malicious information that I “facilitated” the airing of an expose about him not paying on time his casual workers.
That really got me shaking my head a zillion times. How could a mayor, whom I so admired for his intelligence and objectivity decide so easily upon a suspicion that he could not confirm nor substantiate? And when I confronted him about the decision, he did not have the courage to hear me out at least for me to clear my name.

I came to a conclusion that maybe this goofing-around among civil servants comes native in government service that hearsays bear more weight than professional relations and honest service. And I am not the only victim of this sick culture. If you’ve seen good, honest and sincere public officials leaving public service, it’s because they could not stand the people around them. Those who try to rid by “chismis” good people in government are usually those who do not wish to be caught for their covert agenda. And there are those who try to oppose and make issues out of good projects when they feel they cannot profit from them or think that their interest is at stake.

More than anything, politics and governance in the Philippines is like showbiz. We like to hear about the personal details of a public person’s life—the more disgraceful, the more perplexing, and the more morally disgusting the better. Such talk is considered a part of an everyday diet of a public official and they can talk about it the whole day. It also makes up their good character if it feeds their egos. Rumors are also invented to be forced on others so they would have someone to blame and to ultimately impress as the good guy before the public.

The reason why we have a hard time looking for the right government officials is because we employ these sinister methods all the time. The influence of smear campaigns, misleading political ads or the force of party-line habit voting, will make it a struggle for the electorate to possess a profound understanding and consensus on policy issues and political candidates.