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Just how
serious is the Arroyo administration in fighting
corruption?
If
President Arroyo is to be believed, her administration
is determined to put an end to malfeasance in the
bureaucracy.
Reacting
to news that the Philippines had been selected by the
Millennium Challenge Corp.—a US government corporation
assisting deserving developing countries—as eligible for
more funds based on good governance indicators,
President Arroyo lost no time in saying that her
administration’s anticorruption efforts will further
accelerate.
For one
thing, under the newly enacted 2008 national budget, the
Ombudsman will get a P959-million allocation, twice the
level in 2002. The Bureau of Internal Revenue and the
Bureau of Customs will also put in place computerized
systems to better monitor economic activity and collect
the right taxes and duties, she added.
Mrs.
Arroyo also disclosed that the newly created Procurement
Transparency Group (PTG), headed by the Budget
secretary, has been working overtime to ensure that all
government transactions will be graft-free.
“To
further enhance the integrity of public contract
bidding, the [PTG] is in full operation, harnessing both
national agencies and civil-society groups to monitor
the procurement process. I have already ordered all
state agencies and corporations to submit spending plans
and bidding information requested by the PTG,” she said.
These
are steps in the right direction, to be sure. But we
expect the government to take more decisive moves to
uphold transparency and accountability.
Good
governance requires that the Arroyo administration come
clean on various anomalies that have taken place since
2001. There’s the controversial $470-million power
contract with Impsa, an Argentine firm, where $2 million
was said to have been given as bribe money to a Cabinet
member. Then there was the botched P1.3-billion
poll-modernization project of the Commission on
Elections that was claimed to have been overpriced by
P500 million.
In 2004,
some P728 million in fertilizer funds were allegedly
distributed to Arroyo’s allies for the elections. The
2.3-km President Diosdado Macapagal Boulevard in Pasay
City cost a whopping P1.1 billion, with the overprice
said to amount to P532.92 million. The 32.2-km long
North Rail Project costs $503 million, which translates
to an average cost of nearly $16 million or P900 million
per kilometer, a staggering sum that indicates a
possible overprice.
When we
hear the Arroyo administration saying that it is dead
serious in fighting corruption, we only have to ask:
What has it done to put closure to these cases?
Not
much, we’re afraid, with administration spokesmen saying
allegations of corruption are motivated purely by
partisan politics. But the latest political crisis
triggered by revelations of overpricing and kickbacks in
the $329-million ZTE national broadband network deal
tells us very clearly that the problem of corruption
cannot be merely shrugged off as “political noise” and
swept under the rug.
While
the US government through the Millennium Challenge Corp.
commends the Arroyo administration for its efforts in
curbing corruption, it also emphasized that much more
must be done to address the barriers to poverty
reduction and economic growth.
Mrs.
Arroyo should prove that her administration has zero
tolerance for corruption not only by keeping close watch
on all government contracts, but also by sending all the
crooks to jail.
Food crisis in the offing?
Whom
should we believe?
According to the Bureau of Agricultural Statistics,
Philippine rice stocks as of February 1 stood at 1.83
million metric tons (mmt), which is enough to last for
57 days.
Agriculture Secretary Arthur Yap says, however, that the
rice supply of the country is good for a year.
Nevertheless, according to reports, President Arroyo has
instructed the National Food Authority (NFA) to import a
buffer supply to address the shortage.
Yap
gives the assurance that the country is only
experiencing a rice shortage and not an actual lack. But
shouldn’t this be a cause for concern on the part of the
citizenry considering the warning aired early this month
by Albay Gov. Joey Salceda, one of President Arroyo’s
key advisers, that the country faces a food crisis
starting this month in the aftermath of high prices of
crude oil in the world market that would be “a far
bigger disaster than the ongoing sociopolitical
crisis”?
Yap
speaks of a three-pronged strategy for coping with an
anticipated food crisis. The Agriculture department will
continuously ensure rice production, the NFA will
distribute emergency stocks as needed and the people
should not waste food, he said. All this is well and
good, but what’s the actual situation? The Department of
Agriculture says it plans to import 2.1 mmt of rice this
year, up from 1.6 mmt initially planned.
That can
only mean one thing: there is a real rice shortage at
present, but the government seems to be keeping the
people in the dark as to the real score. Our people need
to know what’s going on. |
