Caught
Caught
Posted 11:11pm (Mla time) Feb 22, 2005
Inquirer News Service
Editor's Note: Published on page A14 of the February 23, 2005 issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer
AT THE PRESENTATION of the Millennium Project report of the United Nations at the Hotel Dusit in Makati City last week, President Macapagal-Arroyo enthused: "More government officials are being charged with corruption. Soon, they will not only be charged, they will have their ill-gotten gains forfeited to the government. That is my next instruction to our anticorruption officials."
The statement followed reports about recent gains in another war-the war on graft and corruption.
The week before, obviously acceding to public clamor, the President "sacked" the acting secretary of public works and highways. Also, on the basis of complaints filed by private citizens, the Ombudsman suspended a deputy commissioner of the Bureau of Customs. Two congressmen were also earlier ordered suspended by the Ombudsman for acts of corruption committed in their previous posts as provincial officials. Of course, before them, there were the military officials, led by Maj. Gen. Carlos Garcia, Lt. Gen. Jacinto Ligot and Col. George Rabusa who were tagged either for unexplained wealth or for anomalous deals.
Undeniably, the war on corruption, under the Arroyo administration, has never looked this good, as its haul gets heftier with bigger and bigger fishes. Let us look at the records: 81 corruption cases are pending with the Presidential Anti-Graft Commission; 100 have been endorsed to the Ombudsman and 23 to the Office of the President. These are the figures as of Jan. 31, 2005, mostly the "harvest," so to speak, from the lifestyle check that was started in 2003.
Aside from the high officials mentioned, the list of the accused includes two undersecretaries (of the DPWH and the Department of the Interior and Local Government); an assistant secretary of the Department of Transportation and Communications; the chief of a special investigation division of the Bureau of Internal Revenue; the general manager of the Laguna Lake Development Authority; and regional directors and assistant regional directors, among others. Notably, many of the accused come from the Armed Forces, DPWH, BOC and BIR, which are not surprisingly among the agencies generally perceived to be corrupt.
But not yet
PROMISING as the picture may seem to be, the harvest from the lifestyle checks is far from any assurance of success or complete victory in the war against corruption. Given the prevalence of corruption in all levels of government, the numbers are still relatively much too low. And even as the government seem to be scoring big lately, there is no clear sign that the enemy has slacked off.
In fact, Transparency International recently ranked the Philippines No. 2 among the world's most corrupt countries. The sacked public works secretary stays with his department as undersecretary, lower in rank but definitely still high in the totem pole, influential and powerful. Garcia, who has accumulated a large hoard of unexplained wealth, has only been charged with dishonesty, gross misconduct and conduct prejudicial to the best interest of the service and has yet to be charged with the heinous crime of plunder. And there were the big fishes who seemingly were so easily let off after being caught in the net.
In fact, there are other officials, who are perceived by the public to be no less, if not far more, corrupt, but who seem to remain untouched. Thus, doubts persist about the sincerity and resolve of the government in bringing the war against corruption to its logical conclusion.
Doubtless, the public is aching to see the government's lifestyle dragnet spread more widely to catch bigger fishes in other government institutions, like Congress, for example. But it is not enough, though, to discover which public officials flunk the lifestyle check or even to shame them by making their names known to the public. The real challenge to the administration lies in pursuing the cases until these crooks are put away permanently and, as the President promised, their ill-gotten wealth are turned over to the national treasury.
Posted 11:11pm (Mla time) Feb 22, 2005
Inquirer News Service
Editor's Note: Published on page A14 of the February 23, 2005 issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer
AT THE PRESENTATION of the Millennium Project report of the United Nations at the Hotel Dusit in Makati City last week, President Macapagal-Arroyo enthused: "More government officials are being charged with corruption. Soon, they will not only be charged, they will have their ill-gotten gains forfeited to the government. That is my next instruction to our anticorruption officials."
The statement followed reports about recent gains in another war-the war on graft and corruption.
The week before, obviously acceding to public clamor, the President "sacked" the acting secretary of public works and highways. Also, on the basis of complaints filed by private citizens, the Ombudsman suspended a deputy commissioner of the Bureau of Customs. Two congressmen were also earlier ordered suspended by the Ombudsman for acts of corruption committed in their previous posts as provincial officials. Of course, before them, there were the military officials, led by Maj. Gen. Carlos Garcia, Lt. Gen. Jacinto Ligot and Col. George Rabusa who were tagged either for unexplained wealth or for anomalous deals.
Undeniably, the war on corruption, under the Arroyo administration, has never looked this good, as its haul gets heftier with bigger and bigger fishes. Let us look at the records: 81 corruption cases are pending with the Presidential Anti-Graft Commission; 100 have been endorsed to the Ombudsman and 23 to the Office of the President. These are the figures as of Jan. 31, 2005, mostly the "harvest," so to speak, from the lifestyle check that was started in 2003.
Aside from the high officials mentioned, the list of the accused includes two undersecretaries (of the DPWH and the Department of the Interior and Local Government); an assistant secretary of the Department of Transportation and Communications; the chief of a special investigation division of the Bureau of Internal Revenue; the general manager of the Laguna Lake Development Authority; and regional directors and assistant regional directors, among others. Notably, many of the accused come from the Armed Forces, DPWH, BOC and BIR, which are not surprisingly among the agencies generally perceived to be corrupt.
But not yet
PROMISING as the picture may seem to be, the harvest from the lifestyle checks is far from any assurance of success or complete victory in the war against corruption. Given the prevalence of corruption in all levels of government, the numbers are still relatively much too low. And even as the government seem to be scoring big lately, there is no clear sign that the enemy has slacked off.
In fact, Transparency International recently ranked the Philippines No. 2 among the world's most corrupt countries. The sacked public works secretary stays with his department as undersecretary, lower in rank but definitely still high in the totem pole, influential and powerful. Garcia, who has accumulated a large hoard of unexplained wealth, has only been charged with dishonesty, gross misconduct and conduct prejudicial to the best interest of the service and has yet to be charged with the heinous crime of plunder. And there were the big fishes who seemingly were so easily let off after being caught in the net.
In fact, there are other officials, who are perceived by the public to be no less, if not far more, corrupt, but who seem to remain untouched. Thus, doubts persist about the sincerity and resolve of the government in bringing the war against corruption to its logical conclusion.
Doubtless, the public is aching to see the government's lifestyle dragnet spread more widely to catch bigger fishes in other government institutions, like Congress, for example. But it is not enough, though, to discover which public officials flunk the lifestyle check or even to shame them by making their names known to the public. The real challenge to the administration lies in pursuing the cases until these crooks are put away permanently and, as the President promised, their ill-gotten wealth are turned over to the national treasury.
posted by Dante at 4:40 PM
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