Ombudsman shares credit with media over RP’s improved ratings
Members of the local media got a special “thank you” this week from no less than the Office of the Ombudsman in the Visayas.
The gratitude was for local press partnership strengthened in the past months with the anti-graft body here recognizing the important role of said media linkage.
And it was that partnership, graft investigator said, that helped the Philippines improve its standing on Asia’s most corrupt economies.
For weeks now international news wires carried results of the latest survey made on foreign business executives in the region.
Indonesia and Thailand are perceived as Asia's most corrupt economies with the Philippines making a marked improvement. Previous survey placed the Philippines as second-most corrupt with the latest results “downgrading” the country’s standing to at two notches.
As such, Ombudsman Ma. Merceditas N. Gutierrez said she is elated with the results as released by the 2009 Political Economic Risk Consultancy (PERC) survey.
“Thank you so much for all your help,” the text message sent out to media went saying said good news had a lot to do with the press-partnership. “Congratulations to us all.”
Similar grateful words in an Ombudsman press statement quoting Ombudsman Gutierrez as having said that the PERC survey “is a manifestation that the country’s anti-corruption efforts are gaining ground.”
The results are based on more than 1,700 responses from 14 Asian economies. PERC explained that the United States and Australia were included for comparison purposes.
Gutierrez further credited the Ombudsman’s “holistic approach” with tie-ups in both government and non-government agencies. The Ombudsman has a 73.42% conviction rate obtained at the Sandiganbayan in 2008.
“As a result of the Integrity Development Review (IDR) being conducted by the Office on graft-prone agencies, several measures have been instituted which are meant to minimize incidence of graft in said agencies,” the Ombudsman news release continued. “Through the joint efforts of the Ombudsman,Civil Service Commission (CSC), Commission on Audit (COA), under the Solana Covenant, certain agencies have already issued their respective Citizen’s Charters, which will make transactions in these agencies easier.
According to PERC, “the actual level of corruption is not as bad as it is often portrayed” and that “talk of corruption in the Philippines has to be discounted since many of the accusations either are grossly exaggerated or completely false.”
Ombudsman Gutierrez appealed to the public to be discerning regarding the information they receive. She said they should scrutinize everything that they will read and not immediately believe reports which maybe false. She maintained that the government is doing its best given its limited resources to stamp out corruption in the country.
PERC is a consulting firm specializing in strategic business information and analysis for companies doing business in the countries in East and Southeast Asia.
Perceived as Asia's most corrupt country in the 2008 survey, the Philippines had a score of 7.0 to rank sixth from the bottom this year.
Sadly, Philippine customs and tax agencies, police and politicians have the meanest reputation for corruption in the country, the consultancy said.
But while "there is very little confidence in the Government's seriousness about fighting the problem," PERC also said that "the actual level of corruption is not as bad as it is often portrayed."