|
By Maricel Burgonio, Reporter
Berlin,Germany: The Philippines will aggravate
its ranking as one of the most corrupt countries in the world, as
corruption scandals involving top government officials have been
increasing.
“There are a lot of scandals working at the
moment which is an indication of serious problems,” Nikola
Sandoval, Transparency International (TI) Asia-Pacific program
coordinator, said in an interview.
TI is a Berlin-based civil society group
promoting the global fight against corruption.
The Philippines ranked 131 of the total 180
countries surveyed for TI’s Annual Corruption Perceptions Index
(CPI) in September last year. The Philippines’ score is 2.5 out of
10.
The index score relates to perceptions of the
degree of corruption as seen by business people and country
analysts. It ranges between zero, which is highly corrupt, and 10,
which is very clean.
Sandoval said the string of scandals does not improve public
perception of the country, citing the ZTE scandal as a serious
corruption problem.
For several months now, the opposition has been
calling for President Arroyo’s resignation for her failures in
implementing better governance measures, including stamping out
alleged corruption in her government.
Observers noted that bureaucrats involved in the
$329-million national broadband network (NBN) project with the
Chinese firm ZTE, have not been formally investigated by her
government yet.
The controversy involved her husband, Juan
Miguel Arroyo, former Commission on Elections Chairman Benjamin
Abalos Jr. and Commission on Higher Education Chairman Romulo Neri.
Neri bared an alleged bribery attempt on him in
exchange for his approval of the deal. , He was then director
general of the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA)
when the NBN deal was approved by the NEDA Board last year.
Sandoval said the government was not able to
show ample results in fighting corruption, as the anticorruption
organizations are not very well coordinated, unlike the Palace’s
anti-graft body and the Office of the Ombudsman.
The Presidential Anti-Graft Commission (PAGC) is the agency tasked
by the President to investigate alleged bribery attempts on
government officials.
The Ombudsman had earlier said that PAGC is
powerless and should be abolished, as it only duplicates the
function of the Ombudsman in fighting corruption. Its presence
confuses the international community as to which agency will take
the lead role in curbing corruption.
In December last year, TI’s Global Corruption
Barometer report said that levels of corruption are expected to rise
in the next three years as public awareness on corruption increases. The
Philippines was included as one of the countries most affected by
bribery.
To resolve corruption in the Philippines, TI’s
report said there is need to enact legislation to regulate political
financing.
Among the measures seen to resolve corruption in
the government is the conduct of internal audits of political
parties to eliminate the spirit of political indebtedness to patrons
and financiers. This will also disprove the notion that money is the
main determinant of politics between holders of public positions and
their financial backers.
TI also reported that there is a need for a law
to strengthen disclosure of information, and rationalize and
streamline bureaucracy to reform salary and wage scales in the
public sector. The low salaries by people in the judiciary,
bureaucracy, military and police all correlate to corruption.
|
