Big failure on corruption

Sometime last year, President Duterte expressed frustration over continuing and worsening corruption to the point he said he was thinking of resigning. In his last State of the Nation Address, he promised to use the remaining three years of his term to curb it.

No one can deny Duterte had been a failure so far. His spokesman blamed us for corrupting the bureaucrats. He also had an excuse that civil service law prevents Duterte from cleaning up the bureaucracy.

But that excuse is lame. Duterte had been recycling officials he appointed and named in corruption scandals. He could have fired them at will.

A good recent example is the Bureau of Immigration chief. Even before he could be investigated, Duterte already absolved him. He may be clean but he must first be investigated and must take command responsibility.

Immigration is not the only agency reeking of corruption. Surveys have recently concluded that bribery and corruption in the Philippines have spiked in the last two years. A global survey of an accounting and management consultancy firm revealed that a fifth of businesses saying they were made to pay grease money.

That ties in with a recent Transparency International report showing the Philippines slipped 14 spots in a global corruption index. We were lumped with a group of countries that Transparency International said “showing little to no improvement in tackling corruption.”

In the Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) 2019, the Philippines was tied with El Salvador, Kazakhstan, Nepal, Eswatini and Zambia for 113rd place out of 180 countries and territories. The Philippines scored 34 out of 100 in terms of perceived levels of public sector corruption. This was lower than the country’s score of 36 in the CPI 2018, where it ranked 99th.

The CPI uses a scale of zero to 100, where zero means “highly corrupt” and 100 is “very clean.” The global average is 43.

But the nature of corruption recently revealed in the Senate by senators Risa Hontiveros and Richard Gordon smells of treason and a danger to our national security.

Sen. Hontiveros showed proof that some Chinese-run travel agencies in the Philippines advertise on WeChat they can get Philippine passports, birth certificates and can open Philippine bank accounts for their Chinese clients without having to personally appear.

With the help of their co-conspirators at the immigration bureau, the travel agencies also offer such services as “de-listing from blacklists and airport release if barred entry” to Chinese clients. Sen. Hontiveros, showed screen captures of the advertisement.

“Obviously, these are criminal acts,” Hontiveros said, “and two travel agencies are advertising these criminal services freely.”

Sen. Gordon, on the other hand, denounced the entry of $447 million in cold cash into the country through NAIA and we have no idea how all that cash was used.

This was confirmed by Customs Commissioner Rey Leonardo Guerrero who reported to the Department of Finance that syndicates were able to sneak in dirty money amounting to P18.7 billion into the Philippines with the help of some police, military and airport security personnel.

In an emailed statement by the DOF last Monday, March 2, Guerrero said the money came from two groups, including one run by a Chinese.

Guerrero said couriers of the money are paid between P12,000 and P50,000 per flight.

“These couriers travel almost twice or thrice a week and carry about one to two pieces of luggage...and are able to escape detection because they are escorted by members of the Philippine National Police, the Armed Forces, or of the airport police department at the Manila International Airport Authority,” the DOF’s statement read.

Guerrero confirmed Gordon’s information that the Chinese group brought in foreign currencies between Dec. 17, 2019 until January this year.

Guerrero wants the Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC) to investigate how Chinese nationals were able to bring in so much money in cash.

 But the AMLC wants more powers to fully carry out their mandate. Strengthening their powers is urgent to prevent getting the Philippines in a watch list for money laundering.

The Asia-Pacific Group on Money Laundering recently pointed out “serious risks of financial crime” amid gaps in local laws. The body recommended changes to our law to allow the AMLC to impose financial sanctions, have subpoena powers, and retain forfeited assets.

 The group gave the Philippines until October 2020 to make these adjustments. Failure to do so could mark the country’s return to the “gray list.” That means tighter regulations for financial transactions. That will make it difficult for OFWs to send remittances and for local businesses to transact with foreign partners.

Petty corruption is also rampant these days. I asked our driver to register our car last Monday, something that in the past could be done in less than hour. One day is no longer enough these days.

Our driver was sent by the Pasig LTO to Mandaluyong because the emission testing companies nearby were shut down by DOTr.

I can understand DOTr’s desire to clean up the mess of fraudulent emission testing. But DOTr did not provide a good alternative to handle the big number of cars seeking to renew registration.

It was a big mess at Mandaluyong. The entity authorized to do the testing could not handle the volume. A long line of cars in a busy area was congesting traffic flow.

As expected, someone who seem to be in control of the line started demanding double the price to jump the line. Our driver had to come back to complete the process with the Pasig LTO yesterday. Such a waste of time and gasoline.

The local LTOs have no control over the smoke emission tests which is under DOTr. So, in trying to fix a scam, DOTr created another scam and made it extremely difficult for people to register their cars. That’s progress?

Then again, that’s expected from our bureaucrats. They only use their brains to make life difficult for us.

Boo Chanco’s e-mail address is [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @boochanco.