P-Noy back in China for APEC

BEIJING – President Aquino returns here today to attend the 22nd Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Leaders’ Summit where anti-corruption efforts are high on the agenda.

Aquino was in Beijing on a state visit in 2011 upon the invitation of former Chinese President Hu Jintao.

In a press briefing with the Philippine media delegation here, APEC Secretariat executive director Alan Bollard said leaders were expected to announce a Beijing Declaration on Fighting Corruption.

“It has actually been laid from two angles – from China and also from the United States. It aims to clarify principles of how we deal with anti-corruption, and for APEC, what is important is not just domestic economies, but how things go across borders,” Bollard said.

“To work out where they can swap data and information on particular cases, to help them pursue cases if they’re going across borders…to help prosecution… help asset recovery if, for example, there has been some corruption case in one economy and the people involved have moved their assets over to another economy,” he said.

He said APEC leaders are expected to express support for the anti-corruption declaration and welcome the APEC Principles on the Prevention of Bribery and Enforcement of Anti-Bribery Laws and APEC General Elements of Effective Voluntary Corporate Compliance Programs.

APEC leaders are also expected to commit to work together against corruption and deny safe haven for corrupt officials and strengthen cooperation on the extradition of corrupt officials and the recovery of their ill-gotten wealth.

Bollard said the anti-corruption efforts would involve a common policy and enforcement agencies.

“That will be like the policing agencies of the different economies coming together. But it still has to meet individual economies’ own domestic laws. Nothing will happen that doesn’t meet those laws,” he said.

President Aquino is expected to meet with chief executive officers of the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade shortly upon his arrival at 1:20 p.m.