The litmus test to determine if governments tackle graft seriously is how they protect - or jettison - "whistleblowers."

The Philippines and 134 other countries cobbled that yardstick at the 9th International Anti-Corruption meeting in Durham, South Africa. "Governments must create an environment that encourages, instead of penalizes, citizens who denounce venality"
The good whistleblowers do is patent. Banker Clarissa Ocampo unflinchingly revealed that Joseph Estrada masked himself in the notorious "Jose Velarde" account. Academic supervisor Antonio Calipjo-Go repeatedly exposed flawed in textbooks.

But do whistleblowers here have institutional, not merely whimsical, protection against retaliation? The devil is in the details.

Ensign Philip Pestano denounced, in 1997, misuse of Navy boats to haul illegal lumber and drugs. He was shot in his cabin. Suicide, the Navy ruled within 24 hours. "Murder most foul," a Senate investigation found. Yet, 11 years after the rubout, the Military Ombudsman hasn't budged beyond securing counter-affidavits. Defense Secretary Gilbert Teodoro can't be bothered.

Land Bank's Acsa Ramirez hit the alarm button on tax scams. Instead of being protected, inept NBI agents shoved her into a police line-up. President Arroyo used that for a photo op. No one apologized.

"When whistleblowers end up as the accused, it's time to ask: Is today's policy is canonize crooks as crusaders," the Inquirer asked in a commentary titled: "Beatifying The Crooks."

Recent World Bank and IFC Enterprise Surveys show that 45% of companies here paid bribes, "often solicited in meetings with tax officials". Lapu-Lapu City perfected, to an art, the wringing of bribes for operating licenses, construction permits, etc. But barely 7% of managers report the fleecing

"This indicates reluctance to be whistleblowers," the surveys note. Majority (69%) of managers declared it was futile to report it." Almost half (49%) were afraid of reprisals.

"In this country, those who horsewhip money changers out of the temple end up excoriated." the Sun Star observed.

Now, Senator Aquilino Pimentel demands a fine-tooth audit of P2 million incurred for security of broadband witnesses Rodolfo "Jun" Lozada and Dante Madriaga. Protecting whistleblowers is the job of cops, Senator Juan Ponce Enrile insists.

"Ingratitude", responded the Whistle-blowers' Association. Dropping witnesses after obtaining their testimony was an act of thanklesness. This would discourage prospective whistle-blowers from coming out.

Senator Panfilo Lacson wants Senate security for Lozada and Madriaga continued. He should know. He was PNP chief when whistleblower Bubby Dacer, and driver Emmanuel Corbito were intercepted by 22 men, at Zobel Roxas St. in Manila. Blindfolded, then strangled, their bodies were burned in Indang, Cavite

As investigation tightened, Lacson's men - Cesar Mancao and Michael Ray Aquino - skipped town. Today, Mancao is penned at Miami Federal Detention Center. Aquino plea-bargained for a six year prison term for transmiting US classified information to Joseph Estrada, Panfilo Lacson and other opposition. The US, this week cancelled the US visas of Estrada, Lacson and other opposition figures..

Where auditors refuse to bed down with politicians, they're effective whistle blowers. Their clout is magnified when media publishes their findings.

The Commission on Audit's Helen Hilayo revealed Mayor Tomas Osmena's yen loans, in City Hall books, were "understated" - a polite word for "doctored" - by P1.71 billion.

That was almost two thirds of City Hall's budget.

PR people claim "Winston Garcia has been God's gift to government employees", notes Inquirer's Solita Collas Monsod. "It's a totally different story of misuse of government funds, abuse of authority, favoritism and. incompetence revealed by award-winning auditor Leonor Boado.

Durham was a decade ago. But "the kind and extent of support that a legitimate whistleblower should be able to expect remains unclear," says the Asian Institute of Management study: "Whistleblowing in the Philippines: Awareness, Attitudes and Structures." The country needs "an explicit policy that will govern whistle-blowing."

The country's medium-term development plan urges "enactment of a whistle-blower law." Lacson filed Senate Bill 2040 to provide incentives and shields for whistleblowers.

And here's one of this country's ironies: Given the Dacer and Kuratong Baleleng murders, Lacson was a target for whistleblowing. Now, he postures as author for whisteblower legislation. It blows the mind.

Only with protection from reprisals will citizens step forward to unmask crooks. Thus, Philippine Jesuits and the Ombudsman prepared "Aha." This is a 76-page primer on whistle-blowing. When Filipinos stumble across wrongdoing, they blurt out "Aha," then Ombudsman Simeon Marcelo said

Based on 263 interviews, the primer pinpoint six roles: tipsters, squealers, witnesses, complainants and watchdogs. "But not all whistleblowers can be trusted," warns research leader Fr. Albert Alejo, SJ. The one denouncing must "put public interest above selfish motives."

"Every failure to recover proceeds of corruption feeds its growth," the Durhman statement warns. "Corruption bears with special cruelty on the poor," the Durhman statement said. "It destroys confidence in democracy and the legitimacy of government."

(E-mail: juan_mercado@boholchronicle.com)