CEBU, Philippines - The Office of the Ombudsman continues to spearhead initiatives toward a society free of corruption.
This was the statement made by Ombudsman Conchita Carpio-Morales in her keynote speech in yesterday’s Multi-Sectoral Integrity Conference attended by representatives from various government offices, non-government organizations, local officials, religious groups, and academe, among others.
The event was organized as “it has been a policy of our office to create and institute programs for the prevention of corruption and the promotion of honesty, integrity and professionalism in government service and bureaucracy, in cooperation with all sectors of our society,” said Morales.
Morales said her office has been adopting a three-pronged approach as an operational strategy: punitive, preventive and promotional means.
Punitive approach covers investigative and prosecutorial functions.
The preventive measures, on the other hand, aim to strengthen multi-sectoral coordination in corruption prevention efforts while the promotional initiatives will spread information on programs and projects of the Ombudsman.
“All these corruption prevention initiatives are in consonance with the goal to make a positive contribution to the installation of systems that should make it easier for public servants to do good things and hard for them to do bad things,” said Morales.
Morales said there is no absolute cure yet to corruption, and prevention appears to be the only antidote.
She also cited the eight-point priorities of her office during the start of her seven-year (2011-2018) stint.
These are the prioritized disposition of high profile cases, zero backlog, improved survival rate of fact-finding, enforced monitoring of referred cases, improved responsiveness of public assistance, improved anti-corruption policy and program coordination among sectors, rationalization of functional structure and enhanced transparency and credibility.
“The deterrent effect of investigation on corruption incidence in government can be maximized if official abuse is punished accordingly with certainty,” the country’s chief graft-buster said.
Morales added that the international community has noticed the country’s economic development. (FREEMAN)