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PAGC INEFFECTIVE, SAYS TI-RP HEAD

Transparency groups: Corruption worsened

05/22/2008

The Arroyo administration became the focus of criticisms yesterday from delegates of a regional conference of the Transparency International (TI) who were unanimous in saying incidences of corruption in the country were perceived to have worsened rather than improved.

The country under President Arroyo’s watch would likely sink further down the ladder in the global corruption perceptions index based on surveys recently made on the level of irregular dealings involving government, TI-Philippines chairman Dolores Español said.

Español’s assessment was backed up by TI regional director Pascal Fabie who said the government has failed to make any progress in reducing corruption in the Philippines over the past year.

In the TI corruption perception index for last year, the Philippines was ranked 131st of 180 nations included in the survey with a 2.5 rating. It was lumped with Burundi, Honduras, Iran, Libya, Nepal and Yemen. Its ranking was among the worst in Asia.

Español cited surveys conducted by the Political and Economic Risk Consultancy (Perc) based in Hong Kong and the periodic surveys made by the Social Weather Station that showed the perceptions of corruption continue to worsen in the country.

“I would say corruption has gone up,” Español said. The TI is

expected to release its latest global corruption perceptions index around the third quarter, either in August or September, Español said.

“Sad to say, the Presidential Anti-Graft Commission (PAGC) — the body created by President Arroyo to supposedly address complaints of graft and corruption in government — was not really effective in its task,” Español said, adding that “otherwise, there would have been a perceptible improvement in reducing the level of corruption in the country,” she said.

While the government keeps claiming that a lot has been done to reduce corruption, the perception was that the country had slid into being the most corrupt country in Asia if not in the world, she said.

She also cited government claims that the program to battle corruption is long range. “The government can’t even give an assessment on the effectivity of this long range program,” she stressed.

Fabie added nothing has changed or improved in the year since the agency last rated the corruption perception in the country.

Transparency and Accountability Network executive director Vincent Lazatin said that on a scale of 1 to 5 with 5 being the government as fully transparent, the Arroyo administration would get a grade lower than 1.

He cited the lack of transparency in choosing officials for sensitive government posts such as the Office of the Ombudsman and the Supreme Court. This increases perception that these positions are being politicized, he said.

“Transparency under the Arroyo administration is very poor. The attempt to muzzle government executives through Executive Order 464 and the abuse of executive privilege are just two examples of how the government clamps down on vital information about the administration,” Lazatin said during the conference held at the Manila Hotel.

“The lack of transparency in government opens more doors to hide corrupt practices. If government would allow (former Socio-Economic) Secretary Romulo Neri to speak freely without restraint on the ZTE-NBN deal, then there wouldn’t be that perception that this government is corrupt,” he noted.

Supreme Court spokesman Jose Midas Marquez was quoted as defending the government saying there should be a balance between transparency and state secrets.

Lazatin said one strategy being mulled by civil society groups regarding the ZTE-NBN case is to bring all questions on executive privilege particularly on the ZTE-NBN case to the Supreme Court.

Fabie said to attract more investors, the government should work harder to fight corruption and improve transparency. He said investors often look at perceived corruption in a country and how it would affect their business in the long term.

“Investors are looking for incremental progress in governance and not a snapshot of what things look like right now. They are concerned about the incremental drive for improvement. Vietnam understands that and has taken a step in the right direction,” Fabie said.