E·N·Q·U·I·R·Y
DEMAREE J.B. RAVAL
DEMAREE J.B. RAVAL
TI-Phils. condemns unabated corruption
Sunday, 03 16, 2008
Transparency International-Philippines (TI-Phils.), through its president, retired trial judge Dolores Espanol, released yesterday this Statement:
“In the maze of the numerous reported cases of high level corruption, and the consistently low ranking of our country in the Corruption Perception Index (CPI), TI-Phils. cannot but help but define its stand on this pervading social cancer.
“Every year, TI jolts the world with its CPI and nags the nations with the highest levels of corruption to take immediate and effective action to combat corruption. The Philippines, year in and year out, has been in the hall of shame, notching a score of 2.5 out of a maximum of 10, nearly at the bottom of the list. Lately, other surveys have given the Arroyo administration the “most corrupt” label in Asia.
“Year in and year out, the Arroyo administration has flatly denied that corruption, whether of the grand, bureaucratic, or street level, has been alarmingly on the rise. Today, amidst the NBN-ZTE Scandal in which President Arroyo herself and the First Gentleman have been implicated, the Arroyo administration, in its brazen refusal to reveal the truth, can no longer deny that it has once again betrayed the Filipino people. Even as the vast bureaucracy and the enormous powers of the Presidency are being shamelessly deployed to stonewall against the charges of corruption and hide the evidence, the stink of scandalous deeds of greed have just begun to waft in the air. Already, numerous corrupt deals, scandals and scams are surfacing, as if there are not enough that have already been uncovered, denied by the Arroyo administration, yet incapable of proper closure.
“We must heed the lessons painfully learned elsewhere in the world. In an international conference in Kenya, a TI-Kenya official, alarmed by the deteriorating situation of his country in 2004, likened the prevalence of Kenyan corruption to a rotting fish whose putrefaction accordingly starts from the head. True enough, three years later, a rotting nation erupted in violence arising from the fraudulent electoral process in that country. The political turmoil that ensued recorded more than 15,000 Kenyans dead and many more wounded.
“Let us not be oblivious to the ill-effects of corruption. It is not only the economy that suffers: moral decadence pervades, democracy crumbles and authoritarian rule takes over to support a regime which can be more corrupt than what it replaces.
“The Philippines is teetering on the brink of national disaster, with its socio-political institutions being wantonly destroyed by utter disregard of the rule of law; wanton disrespect for Constitutional principles such as the separation of Church and State, and independence of the three branches of government, among others; distortion of the truth and perversion of the virtues of honesty, justice and fairness - the combined effects of which have resulted in moral depravity and a detestable relativity that is flaunted as a governmental culture of “moderate greed.” This is a tragic attitude for the Filipino people to adopt. Greed is greed and corruption is corruption, whether their manifestations are miniscule or astronomical.
“Incongruent policies have transformed the country as exporter of blue collar labor like dancers, purveyors and handmaidens of the flesh trade and other demeaning sources of money to feed the hunger pangs of irresponsible leaders. If we do not heed the heaving frustrations and anger of our people, it may be too late to save the little good that is left of our once proud nation
“In good faith, TI-Phils. and other anti-corruption organizations have worked with the government over the past several years in heeding the repeated calls of President Arroyo for the citizenry to help fight corruption. It pains us now to acknowledge that in covering up the truth, the Arroyo administration has proven itself the bedrock of corruption. To pretend that the problem of corruption is in the nooks and crannies of the underpaid bureaucracy, or in the streets where petty corruption occurs as government field personnel meet the citizenry, is to be a co-conspirator of the Arroyo administration in maintaining a façade of propriety, transparency, and accountability, while robbing the people blind.
“It is incumbent upon anti-corruption organizations, such as TI-Phils., to help the citizenry make a truthful diagnosis of the sources and parameters of corruption in our country. Our own sad experience in working with government in fighting corruption is marked by the following:
“1] The Arroyo administration has not demonstrated leadership and good faith in undertaking the National Anti-Corruption Program of Action, and has excluded from the Multi-Sectoral Advisory Council the main anti-corruption NGOs perceived as in opposition to the Arroyo administration; 2] There has been no impact or accountability in the use of the one billion peso anti-corruption fund that the Arroyo administration earmarked and distributed last year; 3] The much-heralded, but extremely selective, and much publicized lifestyle checks of government officials have grounded to a halt; 4] The rationalization program that was supposed to right-size the government agencies around their mandates has floundered and can no longer be completed; and, 5] The Comelec, the Executive and under it the law enforcement agencies, are the institutions most distrusted, and the Filipino people now say President Arroyo is the most corrupt president the country has ever had.
“Given the prevailing distrust that President Arroyo deserves due to the unabated corruption pervading her administration, and her contempt for the truth, TI –Phils. shares with the Filipino people who put their trust in her in 2001 their feeling of being betrayed, not once, not twice, but many times over.
“TI-Phils. calls on the Arroyo administration to come clean and allow the discovery of the truth about the NBN-ZTE contract and other deals tainted with corruption. And we call on President Arroyo to start the healing of the nation by owning up to the massive corruption in her administration and her failure of leadership, and by admitting responsibility for her betrayal of the Filipino people.”
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