This week, I'd got an e-mail from the former president of the Institute of Integrated Electrical Engineers of the Philippines, Inc.-Eastern Region Chapter, Saudi Arabia (IIEE-ERCSA) of which I am a member, in the person of Engr. Nelson J. Tagapulot (NJT) from WESCOSA. The subject is about engineering profession to stand-up against the country's corruption practices. The area under discussion is the lamp post installed during the ASEAN summit hosted by Cebu. Although the PDF attachment on the e-mail is not exactly right as per the venue and date is concern, that is another matter and understandable. People outside Cebu opined that when the same name is mentioned, it is Cebu City. Little that they know that Cebu is a province with Mandaue City as the exact location of controversial Cebu International Convention Center (CICC) built on the funds of the provincial government. The other venue of the summit is at another component city of the province of Cebu that is Lapu-lapu City where I reside. The lamp post are erected on the ceremonial streets from the airport towards hotels and meeting venues as well. These locations can be found in the cities of Cebu, Mandaue, and Lapu-lapu, both in the province of Cebu.The lamp post become controversial when one of the lossing bidders filed a case to the Ombudsman for an investigation on the cost per lamp that were ranging from P80, 000 to P300,000 depending on the type and location of the lamp post. By experience, these amounts were astronomical for a lamp including the fixture and poles even if you include the manpower for trenching, sanbedding, cable laying, backfilling, cable termination, pre-commissioning and start-up.But this posting will not tackle on the lamp post issue although it's the main subject matter on hand. Upon receiving the e-mail from our colleague, I kinda feel guilty for not discussing this corruption issue officially thru IIEE-ERCSA Board Meetings. Upon reading the e-mail, I forwarded my thoughts in the form of a query to IIEE Region 7 yahoogroups inquiring their position on the subject. After two days from my e-mail, I received a reply coming from Wille C (cebu_power@yaho.com) inquiring me if there was a violation of Philippine Electrical Code on the subject lamp post. Honestly, my first reaction is I'm at a loss. I was just wandering why the reply is about a violation of PEC. I believe that he's reply told me that as long as the PEC is not violated, corruption is acceptable.
"A tough question" commented NJT on the reply. On my respond to his query on PEC, I copied the words from my colleague that the content of his e-mail is a tough question. I said tough, because it's hard to answer a question that is far from the previous subject which is corruption. I hope IIEE Region 7 had not been blind on the subject itself. Asking me on a PEC violation is something absurd. I jokingly told Willie C that the lamp is just a resistive load and an analysis on ETAP is not required. It's my confirmation that for sure, a technical violation is nil. But what about professional code of ethics? I guess the former president of IIEE-Qatar Chapter is right. The code of ethics had been violated and being a professional organization, it is our social responsibility to share our expertise on the matter because it belong to our field and we live in the place where the irregularity happened.
Making our voice heard on the issue doesn't mean that the suspended personnel are guilty. It has to be proven anyway by investigating authority. Our stand against corruption is to let the community know that we are around and behind them against this plague. I'm looking forward that someday, IIEE 7 will not discuss only technical issues for their own professional growth but to the community where they live as well.
Let me give my appreciation to the former president of IIEE, Qatar Chapter, Engr. Mar Agbayani for his postive rejoinder and NJT for his personal call on the subject matter.
If the engineering profession will not help in weeding-out corruption in the Philippines, then who and when?
3 comments:
Hi,
Let me share my opinions to blog of yours.
In my opinion, there was a corruption about the lamp posts = lighting project, that costs a huge wealth from Filipino people - the taxpayers at home or in overseas. It's the ethical obligation and accountability of the supplier, electrical practitioners who installed the lamp post, the government personnel in-charge of that project who are direct or indirect in executing the overpriced lamp posts. Either of the parties involved should ethically highlight, if they sensed at the initial phase of the project, any malpractices either ethical or technical to report to any government or agency who can help to investigate or stop the corruption in the country.
I think a combination of government and non-government, especially with investigative legal and engineering practitioners, organizations must be created to monitor any public projects to verify, and report to higher government agency any discovered malpractices in any similar projects in the future. This could help Philippines clean the government of malpractices in public projects. There are a lot of things need to establish and implement proect management systems to minimize or to reducte corruption in the government or its projects but a collaboration and syndication with non-government and public communities will greatly help.
Just a share of my thoughts.
Cheers,
Ohrlie
Singapore
i would like to commend you and engr tagapulot for this intiative and for standing up to our oath of professionalism and ethical standards. indeed , this is becoming a rarity these days.. but alas, there are still people in our midst that do care... we , electrical engineers should do our part. we have a to contribute if only we take initiatives and concrete actions to clean our mess.
i join you in this crusade . i hope our fellow practitioners will follow through so that we may live up to our vision as the " most prestigious professional organization....."
there are miles yet to go and the road to excellence is not an easy one.
rey addun
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