TAKING THE ISSUE of corruption even to our peers in media exposes us to unwarranted retaliation. Come to think of it, those whom we pilloried in media have their own weapon of choice who can be capable of fighting back.

But there's no turning back. If hell has to pay for exposing media corruption, then so be it. Therefore, any retaliation even of the worst kind, is part of Serpiko business. Serpiko is one story of a US cop who exposed an entire police organization of its venalities.

Speaking of corruption, when we said before that it was all over the place, we don't think it's an understatement. In fact, it has sunk so deep in the bureaucracy that every step of the way, there seemed to be corruption to contend with. That it has become part of the territory is already something like stating the obvious.

To emphasize one incident of corruption we encountered over the week, we have this very disturbing report coming from one of the Bohol northern towns. We are holding his identity in the meantime, because much as we want to expose him for what he is, we have to get his side first before "detonating" something that will hurt him no end. Anyway, the issue here is corruption, and hiding his identity will not make any difference.

How the "corruption virus" contaminated this northern town factotum is a case study of how this dreaded issue has penetrated even the lowest of bureaucracies-the local government unit. Can you imagine the temerity of this LGU official who demanded 60% in commission of something the town has published in our paper?

The anomalous argument he presented is that another newspaper offered him this much.

By God, if only we can afford to give in to his demand, why not? But it is just too much. To our mind, any newspaper which can afford to give 60% in commission is either colorum or illegal. In the dog-eat-dog media environment, engaging in predatory pricing is pretty much part of the turf. But of course, it should be on a level playing field. We don't run in a good fight but fighting an illegal operation is a different battle altogether.

We hope that in one way or another, this corrupt official will be able to read this BGlante's lament. Next time that we see for ourselves that he engaged the services of a colorum paper is enough ground to take him to task.