Anyone reading our history and travel books would imagine a country so rich that the Filipino people must be one of the world?s wealthiest. The Philippines is blessed with 15 million hectares of forests, 9 million hectares proven with metallic minerals, 2 million species of flora and fauna, including a 20,000-kilometer coastline with surrounding seas teeming with 2,400 species of fish. These suggest a paradise, complete with freedom from want.

However, when newspapers carry such headlines as ?23 million Filipinos living below Asia-Pacific poverty line? (Inquirer, 8/27/08), something?s wrong with the picture. Something doesn?t compute.

Incidentally, the news article quoted above speaks of 27 percent of the Philippines? population living on less than $1.35/day, the regional poverty threshold computed by the Asian Development Bank (ADB).

Why hasn?t anybody made the connection? We have wealth. And yet, why is the Philippines so poor? According to the same ADB study, we are reportedly poorer than Vietnam and Sri Lanka. Why?

We have the same economy as the other Asian countries. What is different is the massive scale of greed and corruption running liberally here. Despite our wealth in resources, our economy cannot grow as much as our Asian neighbors because corruption has risen to such uncontrolled, immoral and massive amounts.

Bataan Nuclear Power Plant. Construction on the 620-megawatt Bataan Nuclear Power Plant (BNPP) began in 1976 at the original cost of $600 million through a loan from the US Export-Import Bank brokered by Marcos crony Herminio Disini. By 1984, when the BNPP was nearly complete, its cost had risen to $2.3 billion, or nearly four times the original and approved contract price.

Despite never having been commissioned, the plant has remained intact, including the nuclear reactor, and has continued to be maintained since its reported completion in 1984. Finally, in April 2007 the loan which has grown to $2.5 billion or P121.5 billion was extinguished. It took 31 years, at zero default, to pay for a dead power plant.

Despite this huge drain on our fiscal and economic resources, the BNPP never produced a single watt of electricity.

Poll automation contract. The P1.3-billion contract to computerize the country?s election process was awarded by former Comelec Chair Benjamin Abalos to Mega Pacific. Solicitor General Alfredo Benipayo, former Comelec chair, declared that the contract was overpriced by P500 million. The Supreme Court deemed the bidding process flawed and the contract null and void. However, the Ombudsman declared Abalos and company not liable for the voided contract, finding ?no malice? involved in awarding the contract to Mega Pacific.

Fertilizer scam. This much publicized scandal involved P728 million. The fund was ?allegedly distributed to administration allies during the 2004 election.? Farmers have claimed that ?not one centavo trickled down to them.?

You and I know that there are other reported scandals in the same magnitude of billions and millions of pesos. The greed appears uncontrollable and the corrupt no longer have any conscience. Lamentably, obstruction of justice and cover-ups to protect the guilty have become the norm rather than the exemption.

As a direct consequence of unbridled corruption, the Philippines lost the opportunity (and the corollary aid dollars) to be elevated to ?Compact? status from ?Threshold.? According to Millennium Challenge Corporation CEO John Danilovich in a briefing to newsmen on 2008 grants, ?indications of worsening corruption in the Philippines are blocking the way to hundreds of millions of dollars in additional help.? Our country failed to qualify for a reportedly bigger amount of $670 million under Compact status (from only $22.1 million Threshold).

The tremendous loss to our economy arising from corruption in above-mentioned three cases alone already amounts to a staggering P123.5 billion! This amount does not even include the $670 million (P32.2 billion) we could lose from the MCC.

We laud the work done by corporate foundations in feeding centers, outreach programs, CSR-benefited communities which, when added up, do amount to millions of donated pesos. Despite the tremendous poverty alleviation work being done by NGOs, 27 percent of our countrymen still remain poor. The sad reality is, 23 million Filipinos still call themselves poor because: (1) they have no homes they can call their own; (2) they worry when they will eat next; (3) their children cannot go to school; (4) they are very afraid when they get sick; (5) they are very afraid when they grow old.

We must open our eyes to reality. Donations alone cannot sustain the 23 million poor Filipinos. We are trying to cure the symptoms?and not the causes?of poverty.

Civil society organizations must join forces, put up a solid front, and finally put a stop to the greed and corruption that plague our land. We appeal to them to be less forgiving and more intolerant to the corruption in our midst. Let us finally put an end to this debilitating cycle of apathy and indifference which leads to more?and even bolder?waste, greed, and corruption.

When the cycle of corruption ends, progress in the Philippines begins.

(Alberto A. Lim is executive director of the Makati Business Club. His email address is makatibusinessclub@mbc.com.ph.)