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Friday, October 22, 2004
Arroyo gov't doing something to curb graft: Bunye
PRESS Secretary and presidential spokesman Ignacio Bunye said Thursday recent reports of government officials being investigated, charged or sacked for corruption is proof that the government is doing something to curb graft and corruption.
Bunye added that these report also showed that government's has achieved significant gain in the anti-corruption drive.
"(But) this problem cannot be solved overnight because it is rooted in structural infirmities that have been there for years. But we are taking bold and aggressive actions to address the problem through the rule of law and there is great hope that we will slay the dragon in due time," he said.
Bunye also tagged as exaggerated the report of London-based Transparency International that the Philippines remains the 11th most corrupt country, tying with Eritrea, Papua New Guinea, Uganda, Vietnam and Zambia for the said spot.
Bangladesh and Haiti ranked first or the most corrupt out of 146 countries, while Nigeria was second followed by Chad and Myanmar.
The Philippines in 2003 also ranked 11th tying with Romania and Pakistan. Romania, however, improved its standing landing on the 16th spot while Pakistan fell to 6th.
But Bunye felt that the report was exaggerated as the gains in the campaign have been disregarded.
"Many stories about corruption in the Philippines tend to be exaggerated and gloss over our determined efforts to clean up the system," he added.
The World Bank awarded a $716,600 grant to the Philippine government to help strengthen the capacity of the Office of the Ombudsman in its anti-corruption drive.
The fund would be used in strengthening the knowledge and skills of field investigators through training and workshop on the preparation and prosecution of corruption cases and the provision of technical assistance for the designing and development of an electronic case monitoring and tracking system.
It would also be used to establish a data banking system to facilitate the analysis of statements of assets and liabilities and net worth of public officials and employees and hire additional full time litigators. There are 57 full time litigators at present handling more than 2,000 cases. (JMR)
(October 22, 2004 issue)
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