I don't know if you guys have noticed, but lately there has been more emphasis in addressing corruption than before. For one thing, there is the lifestyle checks, subsequent filing of corruption charges against BIR personnel and other government employees who have unexplained wealth, not to mention the Supreme Court decision on the Marcos wealth and the issue of the coco levy fund. GMA herself had reiterated her resolve to purge the government of corruption.

We definitely have a good chance of fighting corruption if these initiatives continue, don't you think?

i think so too. moreover, there's this module that the Jesuits have come up with, its called the EHEM module which tackles corruption, not just on the national level, but also in the personal level.

personal opinion: the timing couldn't have been worse. elections are less than a year away. once we hit moratorium, all the momentum being built up may screech to a sad halt.

don't get me wrong, i think the current anti-corruption wave is great. if only it had started earlier...

Well simulan nila yung pag investigate sa Frapport-Piatco row.
Dun pa lang marami na yatang kalokohan.


At saka dapat nun pa lang sinimulan na yan noon pa.

sana naman di gimik ni GMA yan. i do believe gagamitin niya yan for here reelection.

Well I do think the current government is doing their duty and it seems GMA is really trying to get rid of corruption but it's just that the people need to understand and maybe wait and cooperate then the country would then be a lot successful in implementing this things.

Lifestyle check? Oh like that one where the presidential son used the presidential yacht to propose to the current presidential daughter-in-law? But I guess that was an official function, right?

[ July 29, 2003: Message edited by: Colnago ]

Even right from her administration pa naman, GMA already said she wanted to address corruption in the government. True to form, her initiatives have been consistent all throughout her term ... yung mga sunod-sunod na investigations on the likes of NAIA3, PPA, etc, may be perceived as bad for the country, but on the other hand, they also prove that the government is serious in addressing anomalies regarding corruption, di ba?

[ 02, 2003: Message edited by: Dog Eat Dog's ]

NAIA3 controversy centers around the grease money asked by ?????.

The NAIA3 controversy was found to be an onerous contract on the part of the Philippine government, a party to this contract. The Supreme Court found the contract null and void. Among other things, it has been found out that there are provisions in the contract that would require the government to pay huge guarantees to the PIATCO consortium whether or not the airport becomes operational. There were also allegations regarding a certain PR man of PIATCO that was paid P1 million, but upon the investigation of Congress, the services rendered for that amount couldn't be identified by PIATCO.

this sounds interesting. do you have any details on this? you may email or PM me. ty

The anti-corruption campaign's importance lies not so much on a time frame aiming at next to impossibility as institutionalizing it being a commitment of Pres GMA early on and with reference to her inaugural address.

More appropriately, the campaign has INTENSIFIED that prosecution must follow from the results of the lifestyle checks.

The media mileage has been forthcoming since the subjects belong to the top level as the BIR case.
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[ 11, 2003: Message edited by: blukatips ]

True to form, President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo has already authorized the filing of graft and corruption charges against five top officials of the DPWH and BOC after investigation disclosed their ownership of tens of million of pesos worth of ill-gotten wealth. If the government keeps this up, we would definitely have a better administration.

Now GMA should let the Senate investigate the First Family's alleged money laundering scheme.

In one of her statements GMA said the First Family is willing to undergo a lifestyle check, which just goes to show how much she values measures to fight corruption, even if they would be conducted to her family.

There is NO basis to subject the First Gentleman much less the other members when the expose is the posturing of a senator who must answer for his own political liabilities based on the findings of a senate committee.


It is worthwhile for the senate to conduct a probe based on lacson's reference to two supreme court justices making frequent calls to LTA.

[b]

that's all well and good. the problem is, really, election year. whether we like it or not, election year puts everything on standby. and if the resutls do not favor action on the cases, then it's back to square one.

when we say "institutionalization," we want something that is INDEPENDENT of the political will of the incumbent officials. and while i would very much like to believe that this anti-corruption wave is already institutionalized, i would rather be conservative and vigilant about the matter, especially after election year.

an anti-corruption agency to be called Revenue Integrity Protection Service will be established to institutionalize lifestyle checks and other anti-corrupt practices at the Bureau of Internal Revenue and the Bureau of Customs. it's patterened after HK's independent commission against corruption.

this is just good news!

It just goes to show that the government is really serious about fighting corruption. Now, whatever happened to those accusations that the government is doing nothing about the corruption? Tsk, tsk, down the drain, I suppose.

Now that the government has included nigtlife checks in the anti-corruption measures by the government, we're expecting the incidence of corruption to go down dramatically.

Who are these nuts kidding? The simple fact of the matter is that anti-corruption campaigns are mere squid tactics especially in the critical months leading up to a national election. Look at it this way: EVERY Administration SAYS something about fighting corruption and about how they're going to curb it if not (hoh boy!) eliminate it. And yet what do we get year-in and year-out? Every form of institutional corruption remains i.e. Congressional Pork Barrels, Political Patronage especially at the local government level in the rural areas (meaning some 80% of the country), Candidates who have no real party platform or even political ideology to speak of. Corruption remains simply because no one in government has the brass nuts needed to weed it out. And lest we all forget, corruption exists primarily because the greater majority of our citizenry are powerless as individual elements of the Philippine polity.

Masuwerte pa nga tayo sa Forum na ito, kahit papano nakapag-aral tayo sa matinong paaralan, nabigyan tayo nga maganda-gandang buhay ng mga magulang natin. Marunong man lang tayong magbasa, magsulat at umintindi hindi lang sa sariling wika natin pero pati na din sa wikang Inggles. E papano na lang ang mga kagaya ni Mang Pandoy (anybody here even remember this poor blighter?), mga magsasaka, mga obrero at lahat na ng pobre? Wala ng ibang maasahan ang mga ito kundi ang dumikit sa mga may pera at kapangyarihan para lang matustusan ang kabuhayan nila at ng kanilang pami-pamilya. Kaya usong-uso dito sa Pinas ang kumpa-kumpare, ninong-ninang, pagsali sa kung ano-anong frat at ano pang mga samahan na kung tutuusin wala namang totoong silbi sa higit na malawak na kalipunan natin.
The fight against corruption cannot be fought and won with so-called lifestyle checks and nightlife checks. Kung tutuusin ang mangyayari pa niyan ang mawawalan ng kabuhayan ang mga beerhouse, GRO, real estate agents, car dealers at marami pang iba na wala namang kinalalaman sa pandarambong ng ilang ang kakapal talaga ng mukha. You want to fight corruption? How about paying more competitive salaries for civil service positions to entice more qualified people to take those jobs. How about weeding out the inept and the incompetent clock-punchers in the government service through periodic competence tests (say every five years).
Here's an even better suggestion, how about amending the election laws to obligate all winning candidates to public office to have all of their children of legal age (whether natural or adopted) serve in the AFP for at least the entirety of their term. And I don't mean staff positions, I mean out in the field after the requisite training of course. I wonder if there would still be anyone out there willing to run for public office then?

Even before GMA announced her plan to run in the 2004 elections she has been serious about fighting corruption. I think that's pretty lucid. Sure, there is still corruption here and there, which is why it is true to say that the said fight is ongoing. Let's consider the fact that there are government agencies that have made progress in such pursuit. The BIR is one good example. Before, business entities can easily pay whatever amount of taxes they want to pay because of lack of sound technology through which the BIR can verify. But now, the BIR has required business entities --- including suppliers to submit computer files of their expenditures so that when these files are checked against each other, the BIR can easily see which business entities are not paying the right taxes. It's because of this strategy that the BIR has come up with a list of corporations that have to be made responsible for paying less taxes --- a fact that came out in the news months ago.

Every form of institutional corruption remains i.e. Congressional Pork Barrels, Political Patronage especially at the local government level in the rural areas (meaning some 80% of the country), Candidates who have no real party platform or even political ideology to speak of. Corruption remains simply because no one in government has the brass nuts needed to weed it out. And lest we all forget, corruption exists primarily because the greater majority of our citizenry are powerless as individual elements of the Philippine polity.

[QUOTE]Originally posted by joescoundrel:


"EVERY Administration SAYS something about fighting corruption and about how they're going to curb it if not (hoh boy!) eliminate it."

**
BUT not all administration can push for such reform as Pres GMA has been doing.

The President herself and the First Family have expressed their willingness to be subjects of any lifestyle checks.
and also with regard to the contents of their SALS required under the law



"And yet what do we get year-in and year-out? Every form of institutional corruption remains i.e. Congressional Pork Barrels, Political Patronage especially at the local government level in the rural areas (meaning some 80% of the country), Candidates who have no real party platform or even political ideology to speak of. Corruption remains simply because no one in government has the brass nuts needed to weed it out."

**
The campaign's initial gains can be attributed to the passage of certain laws like the AMLA and Bank Secrecy Laws to complement any lifestyle/ nightlife checks.

[ October 21, 2003: Message edited by: blukatips ]

I think the lifestyle check as implemented by PGMA has gotten off to a pretty good start. It has recently received a $700 grant from the World Bank.

I believe this lifestlye check project of GMA is an effective tool to finally put an end to corruption. I've heard there were numerous officials with high ranks who were investigated. The very minute they were found out guilty of having undeclared/hidden properties, they were punished. In fact, some were suspended and some were removed from their offices.

There's this other thing called e-procurement project. It's an on-line thing, where all transactions concerning procurement of equipments and other materials the government are buying, these are viewed via internet. No more under the table. Any of us pinoys who is curious to observed the public bidding can always go to the website.

Don't you think this will work?