YET two more watchdog bodies have been set up by President Arroyo to complement administration efforts to run after smugglers, tax evaders and their cohorts in government through lifestyle checks and by keeping close tabs on collections and revenue-related cases. The order to create them followed global surveys indicating the government was once again seen as very corrupt together with some neighbors in the region.

The Port Transparency Alliance (Portal) and the Partnership for a Transparent and Efficient Revenue Service (Partners) will be government-civil society monitoring bodies—Portal to monitor Customs and Partners, for the Bureau of Internal Revenue.

The President announced the creation of the new groups at the joint meeting of the National Price Coordinating Council and the National Economic and Development Authority Cabinet Group. She said they will act just like the Procurement Transparency Group, which is under the Office of the President.

Members of the groups will be representatives from civil society, academe, the business community and the Church, among others, who will be joined by government people.

Mrs. Arroyo cautioned, however, that “selection of outside lifestyle checkers shall be done carefully to avert any witchhunt.”

“We recently signed a Letter of Instruction to the Department of Finance, BIR and BOC to propose a government-civil society body similar to the Procurement Transparency Group to monitor collection efforts, gather lifestyle and corruption information, follow up major evasion or smuggling cases, the latter in close coordination with the Presidential Antismuggling Group [PASG],” said Mrs. Arroyo.

She said Portal will be guided by a “Framework of Cooperation to Undermine Smuggling” (Focus) which will define the duties and responsibilities of the BOC and its partners, who will attend to smuggling-prone commodities like oil under Oil Watch, and foodstuffs under Agri Watch.

“The idea is to build institutional linkages but gives them a shot in the arm by expanding membership by including churchmen, Fair Trade advocates and proponents of trade facilitation and antired tape. These alliances shall be federated into the overarching Portal without however losing the independence and initiative of the antismuggling compact of the BOC and trade associations,” she said.

She meant the existing “bilateral” antismuggling ties between the BOC and various groups like the Philippine Sugar Commission, the Sugar Alliance of the Philippines, Ceramic Tile Manufacturers Association, the National Petrochemical Alliance and the Philippine Cement Manufacturers Corp.

Meanwhile, the BIR’s Partners envisions a “principled and productive collaboration between the government and those that provide the lifeblood for its operations.”

Government revenue target for this year is P1.236 trillion—P845 billion from the BIR; BOC, P254 billion, Bureau of Treasury, P57 billion; other offices, P80 billion, of which P30 billion will come from privatization proceeds.

SC grants Neri plea to be spared questions

THE Supreme Court (SC) has granted the petition filed by former National Economic and Development Authority (Neda) chief Romulo Neri seeking to enjoin the Senate from compelling him to divulge his discussions with President Arroyo pertaining to the aborted $329-million national broadband network (NBN) project of the government with China’s ZTE Co.

THE Constitution already defined the national territory and fresh attempts to declare the country as an archipelagic state under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (Unclos) would require Charter amendments as it would, in effect, reduce the territorial boundaries, according to Sen. Miriam Santiago.

THE Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) has tapped the help of travel agencies to help prevent criminals and people using stolen identities from applying for passports.

YET two more watchdog bodies have been set up by President Arroyo to complement administration efforts to run after smugglers,

THE company operating the Small Town Lottery (STL) in Angeles City, Pampanga, has filed a formal complaint before the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) against Angeles City Mayor Francis Nepomuceno for alleged grave abuse of authority and misconduct.

NEWLY appointed Elections Chairman Jose Armando Melo vowed to make the 2010 presidential elections “clean and honest” as he assumed office on Tuesday.

A JOINT team from the military and the police arrested a couple who the antiinvoluntary disappearance group Desaparecidos claimed was abducted in Cavite.

CITY OF MALOLOS—A 69-year-old American was found dead inside his parked vehicle along Macarthur Highway in barangay Pio Cruzcosa, Calumpit, Bulacan, early Tuesday morning.