PCGG gets most notable upgrade in anti-corruption survey

MANILA, Philippines - Results of the new SWS Survey of Enterprises on Corruption shows that experiences of the corruption have declined. The survey which ran from November 14, 2014 to May 2, 2015 did interviews of business executives from 966 companies in the National Capital Region and six other major business areas. It sought out corruption in government as experienced, and not only as perceived, by the respondents.

Sincerity in fighting corruption was cited by business executives as key to the mostly favorable ratings given to the government agencies subject of the survey. Even the Bureau of Internal Revenue which had earned Very Bad grades below -50 in 2008 and 2009 climbed to a Neutral -4 in 2014/15.

But the most notable upgrade, says the SWS report, is that of the Presidential Commission on Good Government (PCGG) which went up from a Poor -38 in 2009 to a Moderate +15 in 2014/15. The PCGG had been a non-performer for decades.

Its accomplishment in the last three years supports the SWS 2014/15 survey findings that there has been “continued progress against corruption since 2013, after the quantum leap in 2012.” From 2012-2014, PCGG copped the best performing agency award among the 11-office Department of Justice cluster.

The PCGG, then headed by the current Comelec Chairman Andres Bautista, remitted a total of P56.6 billion in 2013 from the sale of the government’s 24 percent stake in San Miguel Corp. (SMC), and generated an additional P13.5 billion in dividents from the SMC shares in the government-owned United Coconut Planters Bank (UCPB). During Bautista’s watch, close to 75 billion was returned to government coffers.

Social Weather Stations has surveyed top executives of Filipino enterprises, on matters of public and private corruption, 12 times. The 2014/15 survey series has, so far, given the most reasons for optimism in the drive to defeat corruption.

Sixty two percent of respondents agree that “the government can be run without corruption.”

Seventy eight percent disagree that “to prosper in business in the Philippines today, one has to be corrupt.”