PRESIDENT Duterte assumed his role on 30 June 2016. One of his stated objectives at the time was to reduce the level of corruption.
The recent history of corrupt activities was that by 2009, the Philippines was ranked 134th (out of approximately 170 countries) on Transparency International’s (TI) corruption league table. Not good. Many countries ranked below the Philippines were war zones where corruption was endemic.
The first half of the Aquino administration saw an improvement where corruption was reduced. By the end of 2012, TI found that according to its surveys, the Philippines was deemed to be 84th – a significant improvement.
Unfortunately, since 2013, corruption is asserted by TI to have slowly but steadily worsened so that by the end of 2019 we were ranked 111th.
We hope that the remainder of Duterte’s term will see increased vigor in the fight against corruption.
House Majority Leader Martin Romualdez has proposed several anti-corruption bills to Speaker Lord Allan Velasco. One House Bill (HB 579) seeks to create the National Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) as an attached agency of the Ombudsman.
This could be, and I hope is, of real significance to the Ombudsman’s role as what should be the Nation’s most significant weapon against corruption.
I have not seen the draft Bill but it should specify the ICAC’s organizational structure. This lends itself to three functions which are necessary in order to engender a reduction in corruption.
These functions are (a) operations, (b) corruption prevention, and (c) public relations.
I shall discuss these in turn.
The Operations Department should carry out vigorous investigations of all allegations of corruption which are deemed to have merit. The Bill should specify the range of authority of the Operations Department. It will need to be substantial and hopefully will include the right of search and seizure when allegations are considered to be, prima facie, valid.
The Corruption Prevention Department (CPD) is the area which, disappointingly, the Ombudsman, since its foundation via the 1987 Constitution, has made the least progress. Art XI Section 13(7) specifically mentions: ‘Determine the causes of inefficiency, red tape, mismanagement, fraud, and corruption in the Government and make recommendations for their elimination and the observance of high standards of ethics and efficiency.’ Regrettably, corruption opportunities still abound.
I believe that if implemented properly, CPD should reduce these so that by the end of Duterte’s term on 30 June 2022, it has become much more difficult for the corrupt to take advantage of our weak systems.
The third arm of the ICAC should be the Public Relations Department. This is where complaints from members of the public should be channelled. With skillful data collection, the Public Relations Department can originate successful Operations Department activity as well as establishing areas of work which needs to be addressed by the Corruption Prevention Department.
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Corruption, in its unpleasant form of inappropriate ascendancy of the powerful over the relatively powerless, has been a chronic blot on the government’s performance as a contributor to what should be, but has not yet been achieved, a vibrant democracy.
With goodwill on all sides, we can and should make rapid progress./PN
