The Philippines is suffering from a widespread and widespread corruption in its government. Among the methods of corruption in the Philippines are graft , bribery , embezzlement , back door agreements, nepotism , religion . It is from previous President of the Philippinesup to local government units. According to the Ombudsman’s Finance and Management Information Office, a total of 3,852 cases were filed against local government officials in 2011. In these, 633 were filed in Luzon, 600 in Visayas and 544 in Mindano. The Philippine National Police (PNP) is the second in the number of cases filed against the Ombudsman in 2011. Among the cases filed against the following government departments in 2011: Department of Education (562 cases), Philippine Information Agency Bureau of Internal Revenue (416 cases), Armed Forces of the Philippines (304 cases), Bureau of Customs (177 cases), Department of Environment and Natural Resources (155 cases), Department of Social Welfare and Development case), Department of Justice (98 cases). In 2012, the Philippines had a rank of 105 with 3.4 CPI on the Transparency International’s record of 176 countries and territories based on how they were corrupt by the public sector. The Philippines is a member of the countries of Algeria, Armenia, Bolivia, Gambia, Kosovo, Mali, and Mexico. About 30% of the national budget of the Philippines is reported to be lost due to graft and corruption every year.
Types of corruption in the Philippines
The seven corruption cases in the Philippines include tax-exemptions, ghost projects and payrolls, escape or avoiding auction publicly providing contracts, forwarding contracts, nepotism and favoritism, shortage, protection and bribe.
Tax payment escape
It is particularly acute in the private sector due to the denial of private investors who must declare their annual income and pay appropriate government taxes.
Ghost projects and wages
These are done by high government officials where non-existent projects are being repaid by the government while non-governmental or pensionable personnel are paid for wages and allowances. This corruption is a chaos on government agencies involved in the formulation and implementation of programs and projects particularly on infrastructure and in providing wages, allowances and pension benefits.
Prevention of public subscription to the provision of contracts
The evacuation of government offices is particularly the committees of auctions and provision of contracts by auction of the public or the provision of contracts to the disaggregated businesses or contractors who can provide them with personal benefits. In order to legally avoid public contracting of contracts, buyer’s government agencies will conduct a computable buying strategy where small amounts of supplies and materials will be purchased in a continuous prose. In this case, agreements between buyers and suppliers are made where a percentage of the price is given at a discretion sometimes resulting in excessive prices and the purchase of low-class supplies and materials.
Forward contracts from one contractor to another
In the construction of infrastructure projects, contractors have the skills of passing jobs from one contractor to another. In this process, a percentage of the cost of the project is maintained by each contractor and subcontractor resulting in the use of low-grade materials or unfinished projects.
Nepotism and favoritism
High officials can place or nominate relatives and friends in the leadership positions even though they are not qualified. It is one of the roots of the inefficiency and increasing of employees in the bureaucrats.
The Philippine political arena is mainly arranged and operated by families or alliances of families, rather than organised around the voting for political parties.
Called the Padrino System, one gains favor, promotion, or political appointment through family affiliation (nepotism) or friendship (cronyism), as opposed to one’s merit. The Padrino System in the Philippines has been the source of many controversies and corruption.
It has been an open secret that one cannot join the political arena of the Philippines without mastery of the Padrino System. From the lowest Barangay official, to the President of the Republic, it is expected that one gains political debts and dispenses political favor to advance one’s career or influence, if not wealth.
Extortion
Government officials are doing this against their clients by asking for money, valuable things or services from ordinary citizens who are dealing with them or their office. It is acute for agencies issuing clearances and other documents, involving hiring personnel or service providers directly favoring ordinary citizens.
Bribe or Lagay
The system or bribe act that citizens are bribing or placing government officials in the long run due to the byurocratic red tape. Excessive documentation, long processing of documents, ineffective and inefficient management of personnel and lack of professionalism in public service is driving ordinary citizens to put in place for rapid processing and issuing of personal documents. The usual way is to offer a large amount of money to a government official who can assist in issuing the desired documents to agencies issuing licenses, permits, clearances and agencies that decide on specific issues . Another way is to use fixers where people pay some individuals who may or may not be government employees to process or obtain the necessary documents for them.
Political dynasties
Political dynasties in the Philippines limit the equal opportunity for all citizens and also limit the transformation of the country’s vulnerable system as these families maintain the system that benefits them. There are anti-dynasty anti-dynasty laws in the Congress of the Philippines but have not been passed until now and do not know if there is a future forward because most members of the Philippine Congress of the same house are members of political dynasties. Because there is a slight tendency to pass a anti-dynasty bill in the Congress of the Philippines, the only way to have this law is through a referendumand to perform the referendum must collect signatures of at least 10 percent of all registered voters and at least 3 percent in each legislative district as required by Republic Act 6735 or the Initiative and Referendum Act. There are approximately 250 political families in the Philippines who are in positions at all levels of bureaucrats. These families are among the rising and some act as policy makers or patrons of politicians who conspire to gain a greater economic power. In addition to the corruption of political dynasties in the Philippines, a family in power may not fund government projects in areas controlled by its competitors. In many cases, those in power are acting only during elections. Voters are aware that voters know who is behind the construction of infrastructure and other government services.
Laws passed to suppress corruption in the Philippines
Article XI of the 1987 Philippine Constitution entitled Publication of Public Opportunities sets out in Section 1 that public office is a public trust. Officials and public employees must be responsible for all periods of time, to serve them with utmost responsibility, integrity, honesty, integrity, patriotism and justice and living modest lives.
Section II of the same Article stipulates that the President, Vice-President, members of the constitutional and ombudsman commissions can be removed from its office in impeachment for bribery and graft and corruption.
The Republic Act No. 3019 also known as the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act of 1960 lists all the corrupt practices of any public official, declaring them unlawful and imposing appropriate penalties (between 6 up to 15 years), endless disqualification from running in public office, and seizing undesirable wealth in favor of government.
Article XI Section 17 of the 1987 Philippine Constitution and Section 8 of the Republic Act No. The “Code of Conduct and Ethical Standards for Public Officers and Employees” 6713 requires the Statement of Assets, Liabilities and Net Worth (SALN) to be submitted every year.
Executive Order No. 292 or Administrative Code of 1987 repeats the provinces in Section I, Article XI of the 1987 Philippine Constitution. It also gives power to the President of the power to initiate proceedings to recover the assets of public officials and employees who have been found to be unlawfully.
The Republic Act No. 6713 also known as the Code of Conduct and Ethical Standards for Public Officials and Employees of 1989 promotes a high standard of ethics and requires all government personnel to make an accurate property declaration and liabilities, disclose their net worth and money relationships. It also requires new public officials to deduct the property of any private business within 30 days from office sit-in to avoid conflicts of interest.
The Republic Act No. 6770 also known as the Ombudsman Act of 1989 provides the Office of the Ombudsman’s office and structure.
The Republic Act No. 7055 also known as An Act Strengthening Civilian Supremacy over the Military creates two proceedings in the trial of offending members of the Armed Forces of the Philippines and other affiliates under martial law. Crimes charged by the Revised Penal Code and other special penal laws and local government ordinances will be litigated in civil courts. Military courts should only identify crime-focused ones.
The Republic Act No. 7080 , also known as the Act Defining and Penalizing the Crime of Plunder, punishes any public official with himself or connivies his family members, relatives or relatives of relatives, business people are gathering or obtaining of the ill-gotten wealth by a combination of a series of criminal acts with a total amount of at least 50 million pesos (P50,000,000).
The Republic Act No. 8249 also known as the Act Further Defining the Jurisdiction of the Sandiganbayan is classified by the Sandiganbayan as a special court and places it equivalent to the Court of Appeal.
Bodies or agencies created to suppress corruption in the Philippines
The 1987 Constitution of the Philippines created constitutional bodies to suppress graft and corruption and effectively enforce provinces for public accountability. These bodies are endowed with fiscal power to ensure their independence and their actions are appealed only to the Supreme Court.
The Office of the Ombudsman (OMB) which investigates and acts on complaints filed against public officials and employees and serves as government’s “people’s watchdogs.” The Ombudsman and its deputies (General Deputy Ombudsman, Deputy Ombudsman for the Military, One Deputy Ombudsman each for Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao) are “people’s protectors”. This office oversees the general and specific performance of official offices so that the laws apply appropriately. This ensures continuous and efficient delivery of public services. It initiates refinement of public procedures and practices and requires administrative sanctions on offenders and government employees and seeks them for violations of law penalties. The previous OmbudsmanMerceditas Gutierrez has been impeached because of inaction on the case filed against corruption.
The Civil Service Commission (CSC) is the central government agency of the agency that is required to establish a career service and to promote morals, integrity, integrity, responsiveness, advancement and goodwill in civil service. It also strengthens the merit system and rewards, development of human resources and public accountability. It has jurisdiction over administrative cases including graft and corruption filed here on appeal.
The Commission on Audit (COA) is the watchdog of government-run operations. It is empowered to investigate, assess or file and pay all accounts relating to income or proceeds of taxes, receipts and costs or use of funds and assets under the custody of government agencies and instrumentalities. It promotes accounting and auditing policies and regulations for restraint and disregard of irregular, unnecessary, overdue, delicate or unreasonable expenses or use of government funds and assets.
The Sandiganbayan is an anti-graft tribunal in the Philippines. It has jurisdiction over civil and criminal cases involving graft and corruption and other such violations committed by officers and public employees. It oversees the maintenance of morality, integrity and public service convenience.
Barriers to the eradication of corruption in the Philippines
The obstacles to the eradication of corruption in the Philippines are as follows:
The Filipino culture has strengthened the spread of graft and corruption. Strong family relationships give rise to reason or justification for granting benefits to those who are not qualified to receive it very clearly in the employment and provision of contracts. This phenomenon in Philippine society is dangerous to affect the professionalism, serviceability and effectiveness of government services as well as the development of public infrastructure and the acquisition of low-grade and low-cost government supplies and materials.
The Filipino gift-giving culture provides justification for bribery and extortion that makes it difficult for law enforcement and anti-corruption agencies to tackle the problem. This social practice makes it illegal to prohibit gift giving and thus further strengthens this corrupt practice.
Philippine agencies charged with fighting graft and corruption are not well-funded by the government. There is also no recognition, merits, rewards and rewards given by the Philippine government for the efforts of anti-corruption agencies. The personnel of these anti-corruption agencies are vulnerable to bribery because of lack of support, integrity and professionalism. Policies should be introduced in the recruitment of anti-corruption personnel to ensure that they possess morality, integrity, integrity and dedication to this obligation.
Transparency is not observed specifically in government transactions. The public is denied knowledge of the activities of government officials. Citizens do not tell the details of the part of the national budget of the executive (presidential), legislative (congress) or judicial office (courts) and how these agencies spend their funds.
Effective monitoring of government programs and projects as well as costs are not being implemented by agencies or personnel assigned to monitor them. They are also vulnerable to bribery and do not actually conduct their entire inspection but rely solely on the information gathered.
The Statement of Assets, Liabilities and Net Worth or SALN mechanism to curb graft and corruption were submitted by all public officials. However, no Philippine government agency is required to investigate the authenticity of the data entered here. Corrupt government officials can hide their undiscovered wealth during the government’s term by dishonestly declaring their SALN.
Insights
According to an academic study, the vast majority of Filipinos want to implement the death penalty for corrupt government officials. Aside from the death penalty, Filipinos also suggested that whistleblowers or expose corruption, be part of the money the officials feared to be rewarded.
Examples
Coco Levy Fund Scam – scam involving Ferdinand Marcos and others.
Fertilizer Fund scam – scam involving Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and others
2011 Scandalous Corruption in the Armed Forces of the Philippines – Scandal involving members of the Armed Forces of the Philippines
NBN-ZTE Scandal – scandal involving Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and her husband Mike Arroyo
Pork barrel scam – scam involving several senators and representatives of the Philippines. It was revealed by whistleblower Benhur Luy in July 2013. It is called in the media “mother of all scams”.
Decline
Transparency International’s 2017 Corruption Perception Index ranks the country 111th place out of 180 countries.
This is better than the Philippines’ 129th out of 178,ranking in 2011 with a 2.6 CPI, in Transparency International’s list. The CPI score indicates the perceived level of public sector corruption on a scale of 0 – 10, where 0 means that a country is perceived as highly corrupt and 10 means that a country is perceived as very clean.
Transparency International-Philippines said some of the factors that contributed to the Philippines’ (2.6) slight jump are the improvement in government service, and cutting red tape.
The Philippines’ corruption further declined in 2014 upgrading its ranking on Transparency.org CPI from 94th to 85th in 2013 and 2014, respectively.
Source from Wikipedia