DAR officials undergo refresher seminar on Anti-Red Tape law

CEBU, Philippines - With allegations of graft and corruption continuing to hound the agency, members of the Management Committee of the Department of Agrarian Reform 7 gathered recently at the Alta Cebu Village Resort in Cordova town to re-orient themselves on Republic Act 9485 or the Anti- Red Tape Act of 2007.

DAR is one of the agencies implementing the Integrity Development Review, a preventive measure against corruption through a systematic assessment of the agency’s corruption assistance mechanisms and vulnerabilities to corruption.

Congress recently granted the department a five-year extension and a P150 billion budget for the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program.

DAR-7 Information Officer Angelina Manubag said the re-orientation seminar is aimed at revisiting the Anti- Red Tape law to improve DAR’s delivery of services by reducing bureaucratic red tape, preventing graft and corruption, and enhancing public perception on the agency.

“Hopefully, the orientation will now help the employees in the performance of their duties properly and diligently not only for a day or two after the seminar but all throughout their public service,” Manubag said.

The re-orientation was facilitated by head officials from DAR Central Office including Resident Ombudsman lawyer Ronaldo Doctor who discussed salient points of ARTA like factors that contribute to corruption and how to fight it in several fronts.

Doctor stressed that “corruption is not primarily a problem of bad people, but of bad systems, hence, an ounce of prevention is a worth a pound of cure.”

Meanwhile, Dr. Ronnie Amorado, national coordinator of anti-corruption project “Ehem” also discussed the “acceptable and non-acceptable acts of public servants” especially on the areas of “utang-na-loob,” “pakikisama” and other Filipino traits that employees are used to.

Amorado also discussed conflict management in offices, work and relationships. He said conflicts unattended will escalate to a real unresolved conflict. — Jessica Ann R. Pareja/JMO (THE FREEMAN)