Here's something to ponder...
The Presedentiables were asked something about Corruption...
To frame our question, The Manila Times gave this background:
Our country has fallen to the bottom of the World Bank’s list of 10 East Asian states ranked according to their degree of corruption. The Bank estimates that the Philippine state is able to control only 22 percent of of corruption in our country. It is easy to say “I’ll strengthen the Ombudsman institution.” But the Ombudsman’s Office is right now losing majority of its cases. Something more has to be done.
Question: How would you deal with the horrendous level of government corruption in our country?
We asked them to observe a 500-word limit for their replies. Some did not send us their replies early enough. So we gathered what they have said about tackling corruption from their speeches and words in various public forums and interviews.
NOYNOY's ANSWER:
Liberal Party
Corruption is the main cause of poverty in the country and the reason why Filipinos have lost trust in government. We believe that corruption is not part of our culture and that Filipinos are honest, decent, fair and hardworking. Honest and competent public officers and a professional and accountable civil service supported by active people’s participation will remove corruption and restore trust in government.
AS PRESIDENT, I WILL LEAD THE FIGHT AGAINST CORRUPTION AND RESTORE TRUST IN GOVERNMENT.
I will appoint public officials based on their integrity, qualifications and performance record and will hold them accountable to the highest ethical standards of public office.
As required by law, all department secretaries, heads of agencies, and senior officials from director to undersecretaries will be required to have their Statement of Assets, Liabilities and Net Worth available and accessible to the public.
We will ensure transparency and citizen’s participation in crafting and implementing laws, rules and regulations and in monitoring the programs, projects and transactions of government.
• We will uphold the people’s right to information on matters of public concern and support the enactment of the Freedom of Information Bill in Congress.
• We will enable citizens to help stop corruption. Information about the government’s budget shall be organized, packaged and distributed to the media regularly and posted in the Internet so the public may know, understand and monitor how their money is spent.
• We will strengthen people’s participation with simple and clear procedures for citizens to monitor all government projects and report their feedback through accessible means.
Strengthening the Department of Justice and the Office of the Ombudsman will be a top priority in our campaign against corruption. We will fully implement the recently passed Prosecution Service Act in order to strengthen the national prosecution service, attract qualified lawyers, and institutionalize a more effective witness protection program while improving training and equipment.
We will ensure the independence of the Office of the Ombudsman by appointing a competent and credible Ombudsman who will be true to the mandate of the office and will pursue unresolved cases of corruption and human rights abuses committed by public officers.
We will put into place a “zero-based” budgeting system to enhance transparency and improve efficiency.
• Budget allocations for the different agencies of government will be shaped by their performance and their compliance with the reports of the Commission on Audit (COA)
We respect the professional bureaucracy and we will establish ways to motivate and energize the professional bureaucracy
• Qualification standards, especially on eligibility, will be strictly followed, and at least half of the positions of Undersecretaries and Assistant Secretaries will be filled by honest and competent career civil servants to ensure continuity and sustainability of effective policies and programs.
• Government offices will be streamlined and rationalized so that agencies have clear-cut and distinct mandates in order to spur greater efficiency and accountability.
• Performances of government agencies and civil servants will be evaluated rationally and systematically through an effective and measurable performance management system to be approved by the Civil Service Commission.
• The Civil Service Commission Performance Management System-Office Performance Evaluation System will be linked with the DBM Organizational Performance Indicator Framework to ensure accountability of government agencies and officials.
• We will regularly review the mandates and performance of government agencies and Government Owned or Controlled Corporations.
GIBO's ANSWER:
Lakas-Kampi CMD
I think a carrot-and-stick policy would be the best weapon to fight corruption in the government bureaucracy. It is easier to make people honest by removing temptations. Pay public servants better first, give them incentives to be honest, and punish them if they do wrong. This approach will not only help fight corruption, but will also make the Philippines a magnet for investments, which in turn will create more jobs and livelihood opportunities for Filipinos, and allow government to raise more revenues to fund its priority programs like basic education and primary health care.
I have a proven track record of honest administration: I introduced mechanisms in the Department of
National Defense (DND) during my stint as Secretary to guarantee the transparency of all contracts in the agency. This involved forging an agreement, which tapped the services of private sector watchdogs from the Bishops-Business Conference (BBC) and the Makati Business Club (MBC)—both staunch government critics—as observers who had the power to scrutinize contracts to ensure that these are legal and aboveboard.
The private sector watchdogs had access to me anytime, and anytime something did not merely violate the law, but also did not smell right, I would stop a bidding, and I did so several times.
To directly attack the problem of corruption at the source, I am convinced that government should provide material shields to public servants to help them guard against temptations in their job. For instance, under the current government setup, a state employee who is able to save the government P1 billion is never rewarded for his or her efforts, but a worker who is caught stealing P10 worth of staple wires is already liable for graft.
Such a system merely baits people into biting, because of the terms and conditions of employment, the quality of their environment at the workplace and the like. In short, there’s a lot going against public officials.
An analogy I always like to use to explain my point to skeptics is that of a professor with about 40 students in a classroom. “The professor gives you an exam, and there is no proctor or no teacher to watch over you. How many of you will cheat?” Usually they get the point.
As a result of the partnership I forged with the BBC and MBC during my term at the DND, I feel was able to nip in the bud several questionable defense contracts, which included among others, the bidding for helicopters and the negotiated procurement of ammunition.
VILLAR's ANSWER:
Nacionalista Party
I will establish on Day One of my administration that corruption has no place in government. A Villar leadership aims to practice zero tolerance on corruption, applied from top to bottom. I will work for increased transparency in government dealings, especially in awarding big-ticket contracts and large procurement activities. For instance, I will push for televised public biddings. Everyone interested can come and inspect the bidding proceedings and awarding of contracts.
Corruption is a multifaceted problem that has no single solution. As such, it would require a combination of government policies and private sector initiatives to address each and every aspect of the problem. However, increased transparency in government dealings is a good start.
We will tell investors, foreign or local, that no one from the government should ask money from them—no monkey business and under-the-table transactions under my watch. Any investor can come and report to the
Office of the President any bribery attempt. We will reveal or publicize the names of those people who ask, or even attempt to ask, commissions or “lagay.”
I intend to significantly improve the country’s tarnished image in the international community by stamping out corruption.
The Philippines was ranked fourth among the most corrupt countries in Southeast Asia out of 16 surveyed by over 2,000 expatriate businessmen, according to the Political and Economic Risk Consultancy.
A corruption-free leadership and government will ensure that no public funds are lost in corruption, thus this will help ease poverty in the country as more funds will be available to spend on people’s needs. Fighting corruption will be a day-to-day fight, which will contribute a lot to bring the majority of our countrymen out of poverty.
GORDON's ANSWER:
Bagumbayan Party
We must end public cynicism and distrust of government by installing a new culture of honesty and integrity in the public service—starting from the top and reaching to the lowest rungs of the bureaucracy. The Dick Gordon Presidency will fight corruption first of all by providing Leadership by Example.
Let us be honest about this. Corruption has worsened many times over during the past 20 years. What we need is not a change of men but a change in men. Under a Gordon Presidency, the Filipino character will be caring, competent, competitive, courageous, united, liberal, honest, transformational, secure, sustainable and successful.
Corruption has corrosive effects on our ability to attract investments. Worse, it has degenerated to the point where corruption kills, as you have seen with the military weapons falling into the hands of the Ampatuans, and our ineffective governance that allows non-seaworthy ships to sail and, thus, perish even under calm weather. As we have done in Olongapo, Subic and the Tourism Department, we will personally make sure that the law is properly followed.
Let me point out one thing. When we started experiencing corruption in Subic after I left, smuggling prospered, investments went down. All we attracted as investors were the minnows. But the moment we removed corruption, we attracted Hanjin, and much more foreign investment.
These are some of the ways the Gordon Presidency will fight corruption:
1. The Ombudsman should not be an appointed position, but it should be an elective position.
2. We will move to help declog the courts, particularly the Sandiganbayan. We may pilot a jury program that would ensure the faster handling of court cases.
3. We will not pardon a single government official convicted of corruption.
4. We will re-invent the bureaucracy by providing clear guidelines and levels of accountability for each government official.
5. We will streamline and automate key functions to limit official discretion and other potential avenues of corruption.
6. We will make tax payments simpler and re-establish the BIR as the National Revenue Authority, with a high payscale to attract young, idealistic individuals into a career for helping national development through the collection of government revenue.
7. We will ensure strict law enforcement, by improving on the urban landscape—street lighting, uniformed bus drivers and vendors— to make crime-fighting easier, set up People’s Law Enforcement Boards and creating a national 161 hotline, similar to 911 in the US, for citizen’s to call for emergencies.
8. We will make all government money transactions, biddings and such things completely transparent. These will be posted on the Internet so that any citizen can see how public money is being used.
Hope it'll shed some light...
Something to Ponder before May 10, 2010
Originally Posted by smictague
duha2 pajud ko kinsa ako botaran
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