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Tuesday, June 20, 2006
Arroyo allots P1 billion to fight graft
MANILA -- President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo on Monday ordered the budget department to release P1 billion for the government's all-out war campaign against graft and corruption.
Arroyo, in her opening statement during the revenue command conference in Malacañang, said the P1 billion is the Philippines' counterpart to the US$20.685 million grant from the United States under its Millennium Challenge Account (MCA).
The program against graft would be led by the Presidential Anti-Graft Commission (PAGC) in coordination with the Office of the Ombudsman.
"I'd like to begin this command conference by thanking the US for its grant to help us fight graft and corruption, making the Philippines one of a handful, only a handful of countries in the world, to benefit from its Millennium Challenge Account, an account which was put up by President Bush at the turn of the millennium, to reward countries that govern well," she said.
Arroyo said aside from improving the anti-graft and corruption campaign, part of the fund would be used in strengthening the finance department and the Bureau of Internal Revenue and Bureau of Customs by developing an effective mechanism for gathering and validating tax collection data and investing in information technology, surveillance tools, and a Customs tracking system to make probes more thorough and efficient.
"An intensified drive against tax cheats and smugglers, high impact anti-illegal drugs operations by the police and PDEA (Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency), including the transfer of the anti-drugs function of the police to the PDEA, and a values reorientation and moral recovery program through the Presidential Commission on Values Formation in partnership with the religious sector, educational institutions, DepEd (Department of Education) and Ched (Commission on Higher Education), and allied NGOs (non-government organizations)," said Arroyo in enumerating where the funds would go.
Budget Secretary Rolando Andaya Jr., in explaining how the funds would be used to address corruption in the revenue and expenditure side, enumerated how the Office of the Ombudsman and other allied agencies would use the funds.
He said the Office of the Ombudsman could use the fund to hire more investigators and prosecutors while the DepEd and Ched would use it to promote values formation in the school curriculum.
He said PDEA was included in the list because it is "on the belief that the drug trade can only flourish if proceeds are used for grease money, for protection."
Finance Secretary Margarito Teves said the additional fund would help generate more resources to be channeled into health, education, and poverty reduction services that will benefit the most advantaged sectors of society.
"We thank the MCA for this demonstration of faith in our commitment to fight corruption. Rest assured that we will continue working to institutionalize transparency, accountability, and fairness in every sector and at every level of government because we know that this is vital to our vision of a globally competitive Philippines that offers countless opportunities for all Filipinos," he said.
Teves said the breakdown, if the account is followed, is as follows: US$6.5 million for the office of the Ombudsman to be used in the training of personnel, establishing of information management, and enhancing investigation and surveillance capability; US$9.4 million for the internal revenue office and its anti-corruption and Run After Tax Evaders (Rate) programs; US$3.1million for customs' anti-corruption and Run After The Smugglers (Rats) program; US$1.4 million for the finance department's lifestyle check or Revenue Integrity Protection Service (Rips) program.
He said the government's P1 billion counterpart is a positive signal to the US that the Philippines is serious in its campaign against graft and corruption.
PAGC chairman Constancia de Guzman said they accept the all-out war against corruption challenge issued by Arroyo.
De Guzman said they are committed to work harder to ensure that all the recommendations they make to the Office of the President and complaints filed with the Office of the Ombudsman and the Department of Justice would be approved and upheld 100 percent.
She also said they would be meeting with the heads of the agencies that would benefit from the P1 billion Philippine counterpart to determine how best they could use their additional allocations both from the Philippines and the US to improve the campaign against graft and corruption.
She said specific programs and time frames would be set up and they would ensure there would be more accomplishment sin the campaign. (JMR/Sunnex)
(June 20, 2006 issue)
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