CORRUPTION IN THE PHILIPPINES

I. FACTS

A. Brief Significant Background of Corruption in the Philippines

Jeffrey Hays (2015) defined corruption as dishonest or fraudulent conduct by

those in power, typically involving bribery .Corruption is a serious problem in the

Philippines. It pervades public life, keeping tax revenues low and hurting efforts to

alleviate poverty. Charges of corruption, graft, and cronyism are common among

government officials at all levels. These problems are so entrenched that Filipinos have

come to accept cronyism and the diversion of a small percentage of funds as natural. A

survey released in 2010 showed ranked the Philippines as the fourth most corrupt of 16

major Asia-Pacific investment destinations. The Philippines scored 8.06 in the 2010

survey, indicating that--against its neighbours in the region--it swung from worst to bad

(abs-cbnews.com, Reuters, AFP, March 9, 2010).

According to business-anti-corruption.com (2015), corruption is said to take

place at all levels of the government, but it is more rampant among high-level civil

servants. For businesses, it is important to note that the country's complex, sometimes

contradictory regulatory regime leaves room for corrupt civil servants to attempt to

extract bribes. Several surveys have also shown that companies generally have little

confidence in the Philippine judicial system. The main reasons include the allegedly

incompetent court personnel, corruption and long delays of court cases. There is a lack

of transparency in the Philippines' public procurement, and bribes are often demanded

from companies wishing to win government contracts, as shown by the Survey of

Enterprises on Corruption 2014. Another sector in which companies are particularly

vulnerable is obtaining licenses and permits; the Survey of Enterprises on Corruption

2014 shows that the most common type of private sector corruption was bribing local

government officials in return for licenses and permits in 2012 and 2013.

B. Current Events and Data

BINAY FATHER, SON CHARGED ANEW WITH GRAFT, FALSIFICATION

Former Vice President Jejomar “Jojo” Binay and his son, dismissed Makati City

Mayor Jejomar Erwin “Junjun” Binay, were charged on Friday with graft and falsification

in connection with the procurement of the P1.3-billion Makati Science High School

building. Ombudsman prosecutors filed four counts of violation of the Anti-Graft and

Corrupt Practices Act and three counts of falsification against the Binays in the

Sandiganbayan. The charges against the Binays are bailable. But if convicted, they face

penalties of six to 10 years imprisonment for each count of graft and six to eight years

for each count of falsification. Records showed that Makati City officials allegedly forged

documents to make it appear there were other bidders who competed for the separate

engineering and construction contracts awarded to Infiniti Architectural Works and

Hilmarc’s Construction Corp. (Inquirer.net, March 2018)

C. Documentation

Former Vice President Jejomar Binay and

his son, former Makati Mayor Junjun Binay. (2018)

http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/974149
Ex-VP Binay to seek re-investigation of graft,

falsification charges. (2018) https://news.abs-

cbn.com/news/08/04/17

II. REACTION TO ISSUE

A. What can people and/or government do?

What the Philippine Government should do to eliminate graft and corruption is to

intensify the governing bodies and board that observes, assesses and evaluates the

Statement of Assets, Liabilities and Net worth or SALN of every government officials as

well as to have a better rules and regulations about prohibiting political dynasties in the

country. In the flipside, we, the people should take time conducting a through

observation, assessment and background check of every single candidate you would

like to give the huge responsibilities of leading a barangay, city, province and most

importantly the whole nation.

B. Who’s responsible?

Primarily the problem of graft and corruption in the Philippines is caused by the

irresponsibility, dishonesty and negligence of integrity among government servants. If

not because of the selfishness of those people with position, we can now be part of a

community that is wealthy, free from ignorance and lack of opportunities or chances.

But we should not only put the blame to those corrupt officials. We should think that as
a citizen of a democratic country, we, the people hold the responsibility of electing who

we would like to lead us in a achieving corrupt free country. Therefore, somehow we

should take the blame by electing those corrupt officials who are causing us this almost

endless misery of corruption.