THERE is nothing about the list of the Presidential Anti-Corruption Commission (PACC) naming, if not shaming, the most corrupt agencies of our government. On top of the list is the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH). Most of these agencies in the list of PACC were already in the list in a survey conducted before by a non-government organization.
PACC Chair Dante Jimenez released the list to journalists after his meeting with regional directors of government agencies in Central Visayas on Monday, March 25. As to why corruption is still rampant in the administration of President Duterte is simply unbelievable. Do elections have something to do with corruption? I think so.
To recall and I say without fear of contradiction that President Duterte won the 2016 presidential polls primarily because of his two big promises---to eradicate the illegal drugs trade and corruption in government. It’s almost three years that President Duterte is in office and yet the machinery of corruption is still in place. What’s wrong?
Jimenez even showed to media his graphics, a “triangle” of those involved in corruption at the DPWH. He named the politicians as the “godfather” of corruption, from congressmen down to the governors and mayors. On top of the “triangle” is the DPWH and the Commission on Audit (COA) and the contractors are on the two other angles.
I still believe, though, that there are honest-to-goodness civil servants in government who kept their most valued principles in life: integrity and honesty, and even in these government agencies that PACC listed as the most corrupt. The problem, though, is that those who don’t join the shady practices are deemed the villains.
Duterte created the PACC to go after the corrupt civil servants and cleanse the agencies of corruption. There is no doubt that Duterte has the will to enforce his policy of clean governance as evidenced by those he sacked from office on suspicion of shady transaction or corrupt practices.
But what is surprising is the fact that none of those that Duterte removed from office have been charged either administratively or criminally, such that his critics doubt the sincerity of the President to clean his government of errant officials and civil servants.
If my memory serves me right, I think President Duterte once said that he left the matter of prosecuting the misbehaving government officials and employees to the appropriate government office, like the Ombudsman.
Be that as it may, my only wish is that PACC, even if some critics doubt the credibility of Jimenez, could passionately pursue what President Duterte has started to clean this government of misfits.
On his promise to eradicate the illegal drugs trade in three months, which was extended to a year, the President seemed to have resigned from the fact that the illegal drugs menace in the country is humongous that his fiercest campaign enforced by the national police that resulted in several deaths and the shaming of politicians who have links with the drug lords were not enough. But Mr. President, your campaign against the illegal drugs trade should be pursued come what may for the sake of the children’s future and this country.