NEWS
TRENDS
March 14, 2008
Lozada
graces Corruptionary book pre-launch
 “Moderate
the greed” and other corruption-related words that are part
of the Filipino-English lexicon today will only stop being popular
if their source – corruption – is eliminated.
Rodolfo
“Jun” Lozada, Senate whistleblower on the $329-million
ZTE scam, thus said at the pre-launch of Corruptionary, a dictionary
of corruption-related words soon to be launched by the Center for
People Empowerment in Governance (CenPEG). The pre-launch was held
morning of March 9 at the University of the Philippines (UP) in
Diliman, Quezon City.
The
pre-launch was preceded by a Lakad-Takbo laban sa Katiwalian (Walk-Jog
against corruption) around the UP campus oval, led by CenPEG Board
chair and National Artist Bien Lumbera and former UP Faculty Regent
and CenPEG Senior Fellow Roland Simbulan.
Lozada,
who came with a group of Benedictine sisters and Senate Security
staff, also exhorted the audience of professors, student leaders,
and community residents that denouncing crooks can be more effective
if it comes from love for the victims of corruption.
 The
corruption-related words were compiled by CenPEG, with the help
of UP student researchers, from various sources mostly government
agencies, police and the National Bureau of Investigation, courts,
businessmen, media, as well as studies on corruption.
The
lexicon of corruption words shows the extent and depth of corruption
infesting government, business, and other sectors that reached its
boiling point with the expose’ of Lozada regarding alleged
kickbacks in the now-scrammed ZTE deal and other projects.
Some
of the words in the book are: gapang, another term referring to
illegal operation; ghost meeting, fake meetings intended only to
steal from office budget; gobya, another term for bribe money; pangangahoy,
stealing parts of government-issued vehicle and other equipment;
panyakaw ng empleyado, government employee preoccupied with activities
other than his job; and tengga, delaying a transaction to collect
more grease money.
 Prof.
Bobby Tuazon, director of CenPEG’s Policy Study, Publication
and Advocacy program, said research for the book was begun mid-2006
and had to be extended as more words surfaced as a result of the
ZTE scam and other corruption cases.
Corruptionary
will be CenPEG’s fifth book since its founding in 2004. Its
recent book, Dissecting Corruption, was launched on Dec. 19, 2008.
Links
to the pre-launch news coverage:
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