EDITORIAL - Second worst

This is one list that we don’t want to top. But we’re just one notch away from the dubious distinction of being perceived as the most corrupt country in Asia, according to the latest survey taken by the Political and Economic Risk Consultancy Ltd. The PERC survey results, released yesterday, showed the Philippines behind only Indonesia in the list of Asia’s most corrupt.

Foreign businessmen polled for the survey ranked Singapore as the cleanest in the region with a score of 0.65, followed by Japan with 3.46 and Hong Kong with 3.50.

A far fourth was Taiwan with 6.15. Close on its heels were South Korea with 6.50 and Malaysia with 6.80, followed by Thailand with 7.20, China with 7.68 and India with 8.63. The Philippines, with a score of 8.80, ranked behind even Vietnam, which was rated at 8.65. Indonesia scored 9.10.

While PERC noted that corruption was "clearly less today" in the Philippines than during the Marcos regime, the respondents were not sure if the Arroyo administration "is any clearer or dirtier" than that of Joseph Estrada, who was ousted less than midway through his term amid a corruption scandal. This observation alone should galvanize the administration to intensify its campaign against graft. The Philippines has consistently scored low since the PERC surveys were started 18 years ago, and the country has fared no better in similar international surveys on transparency.

In recent months some progress has been made in the campaign against corruption, with much of the credit going to the renewed zeal of the Office of the Ombudsman. Military generals are being court-martialed and facing graft charges in civilian courts. Ranking government officials have also been indicted, suspended or dismissed for unexplained wealth. Graft busters mean business, but their message is slow in getting out, and it is being muddled by continuing corruption at all levels of the bureaucracy. It is also being muddled by the slowness of the prosecution of graft cases, including the trial of Estrada and Garcia. The latest PERC survey is a reminder of how much work remains to be done in stamping out corruption.