EDITORIAL - Cleaning up

There will be frequent and random terminal auditing as well as financial audit of trust receipts, and the Armed Forces of the Philippines will no longer have discretionary powers over funds from the United Nations. These are among 18 recommendations drawn up by the AFP together with the Department of Budget and Management and the Commission on Audit to improve the military’s logistics and financial system.

The recommendations, presented to the Senate yesterday, are among the offshoots of the congressional hearings on corruption in the AFP. The revelations at the hearings have not swayed the Sandiganbayan, which approved this week the controversial plea deal between former military comptroller Carlos Garcia and government prosecutors. Among other things, the deal will allow Garcia to keep assets whose value a two-star general could never have earned on his military salary.

While the Aquino administration is appealing the court ruling, reforms can be initiated to plug opportunities for corruption in the AFP and promote transparency in funding and procurement. Those 18 recommendations will go a long way in achieving these objectives – if they are properly implemented.

Reforms have in fact been undertaken in the AFP and Department of National Defense since 2004 under the US-supported Philippine Defense Reform Program. AFP chiefs of staff in recent years have emphasized that the systems and procedures that allowed the “conversion” and diversion of military funds to private pockets have been amended or scrapped. The office of the AFP comptroller has been abolished and bidding procedures simplified. Some AFP units have also started posting their funding requests and actual expenditures on their websites. 

A defense department committee formed to look into the problem of corruption in the military has proposed, among other things, the computerization of the AFP’s logistics and financial management system as well as the creation of a defense acquisition bureau. The committee is also proposing the audit of intelligence funds, but without compromising national security. Implementing this last one can be tricky. But at least the willingness is there, and military officers themselves are crafting measures to clean up their organization.

After the corruption scandal that has driven a former chief to kill himself and seen several generals on trial for plunder, the AFP should emerge stronger, on its way to becoming a graft-free, professional force.