PAGC vows to make life harder for grafters

The Presidential Anti-Graft Commission (PAGC) warned public officials against getting into “shady deals” and run the ever-increasing risks of leaving evidence to convict them.

PAGC chief Secretary Constancia de Guzman issued the warning amid fears that the 2010 elections might prompt some officials to raise funds for their political campaigns through “anomalous” means.

“Please note that the public service environment today is very different from how it was before 2001. Since then, the PAGC has been setting up various policy and structural reforms and will continue to do so all the way to 2010 to make life harder and harder for grafters. Thus, today it is much more difficult to commit graft and corruption without leaving evidence of the crime,” De Guzman said.

From 2001 to 2007, the PAGC has recommended to President Arroyo the dismissal of a total of 72 high-ranking public officials – from the position of Customs collector and revenue regional director to assistant secretary and undersecretary – including administrators and heads of agencies, commissioners, and even prosecutors of the justice department, among others, De Guzman said.

“Now I assure you that this number will not stop growing if public officials will not stop committing graft,” she added.

The 72 officials accounted for the highest number of dismissals ever recorded in any administration. Only six public officials were ordered dismissed from office during former President Fidel Ramos’s term and none during Joseph Estrada’s.

Twenty-five others were ordered suspended, 21 to be meted with accessory penalties, and eight to be reprimanded.

Since 2004, the PAGC has been implementing the Integrity Development Action Plan (IDAP), consisting of 22 specific anti-corruption measures under four major areas of implementation – prevention, education, investigation and enforcement (deterrence), and strategic partnerships.

“Now the PAGC is also introducing IDAP to the various local government units. This campaign has been cascaded to a total of nine regions spanning at least 81 LGUs over the past eight months and would continue to cover the entire archipelago,” De Guzman said.