Common industry practice, a non-cash gift and taxpayer savings. Wow. These are the Aquino administration's justifications for shielding a Pagcor official's act of accepting non-monetary gifts? These same justifications will lead the pursuit of matuwid na daan to baku-bakong daan.
Common "industry practice" can be interpreted to mean the same crooked ways of how some in the Philippine and foreign private industry have connived with corrupt public officials through bribery in their quest to further their company's quarterly earnings.
Bribery can also be in the form of non-cash gifts. The stand of this administration testifies to the inadequate, outdated and inutile approach of tackling corruption and the laws that define it in the Philippines: talk about a neanderthal perspective to the ever-growing sophistication of this social evil.
Government savings? I would rather pay what is due to the public treasury than be used as a reason for public officials to commit sanctioned bribery. Hospitality provided by foreign government institutions in the course of an official function (e.g., reciprocal diplomatic exchanges of gifts) is understandable.
But hospitality provided by a private institution, even in an official capacity, is always suspect, not above suspicion, and definitely not immune to perception of corruption.
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