Monday, April 25, 2005
LGUs are striving to clean up ranks
By Raquel C. Bagnol
SURIGAO City Mayor Alfonso Cassura said there is still hope despite the perception that the Philippines is a corrupt country as local government units (LGU) do strive to rid themselves of corruption.
"By joining this 'Transparent Accountable Governance' (TAG) project, we aim to erase from the minds of the Filipinos that nothing has been done about the issue of corruption in the country," Cassura said during the mayors' meeting at the Waterfront Insular Hotel last Friday.
Cassura said he and the other mayors of the cities under the TAG project believe that corruption can be reduced, if not totally curbed.
"We are not promising to eradicate corruption but we are trying to reduce it," he said. In connection with this, he sought the participation of the media to help change the view of the public that the Philippines is corrupt.
Of the 27 cities in Mindanao, Cassura said 19 had already expressed willingness to join the TAG project.
He added that Davao City has not joined yet but the local governments are not obliged to join.
"This is on an invitation basis, but even if the mayor will show interest to join, if he can not get the support of the City Council and the department heads in his city, he better forget about the whole project," Cassura said.
The pilot cities for the TAG project are Igacos, General Santos City, Cotabato City, Dapitan, Iligan, Marawi and Surigao City but for the next phase, the cities of Butuan, Dipolog, Oroquieta, Ozamiz, Panabo, Zamboanga, Koronadal, Malaybalay and Tacurong have joined the program.
The TAG project is undertaken by the Asia Foundation with funding assistance from Usaid.
TAG means "truthful and responsible governance" which aims to bring the government closer to the people and translate government work into benefits for the people like food, jobs for breadwinners, peace to war-torn areas, businesses for entrepreneurs, education, healthy environment, medicines and health care for the sick, water, shelter, electricity to each household and others.
For Bisaya stories from Davao. Click here. (April 25, 2005 issue)
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