Saving for the rainy days: Government now has saved up PhP 1.75 billion to be used to address people's needs during calamities, something which had been sorely missing in the previous administration, local goverment officials and typhoon victims said. BUCK PAGO/AKP Images

The diversion of calamity funds into the pockets of public officials rather than helping the victims of natural disasters is surely one of the most heinous kinds of corruption anywhere and a record of how poorly a government cares or is able to look after its most vulnerable citizens.

In his first State of the Nation Address (SONA) last month, President Benigno Aquino III revealed that the PhP 2 billion (USD 44.4 million) calamity fund for 2010 had already been nearly all spent.

Huge task: Reversing the poor public perception on DILG when in comes to fighting corruption is the first order of the day of Secretary Jesse Robredo. Photo courtesy of www.sugod.com

While he has been assiduous with all his senior appointments, President Benigno Aquino III was especially careful when it came to the person who would head up the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG).

It is after all the DILG which has to channel his transparency agenda from the national to the local level and down to the grassroots. Aquino essentially led the department himself for several weeks before designating former Naga City mayor Jesse Robredo as its chief.

The DILG has the Local Government Units (LGUs) as its main clientele. The LGUs are subdivided into 81 provinces, 136 cities, 1,495 municipalities and 42,008 barangays as of December 31, 2008.

Swimming in rice: Alleged hefty commissions in rice importation and poor insight have left thousands of metric tons of rice rotting in NFA warehouses, unfortunately at the expense of taxpayers' money. JES AZNAR

During his first State of the Nation Address last month, President Benigno Aquino III spent almost five minutes talking about the National Food Authority (NFA), the state-owned grains agency.

Safe and fast still? People nowadays see post offices as the last resort to send goods and money to their loved ones, fearing these would all be lost or damaged to corruption. CLAIRE DELFIN

With millions of Filipinos having family members, relatives and friends abroad, horror stories also abound about incredulously high custom duties and taxes one pays when receiving a package from abroad shipped through post offices, whether private or public.

Calvin’s aunt sent him some thermal underwear from Taiwan for him to use on his trip to Beijing. When the package arrived, he had to cough out PhP 1,435 (USD 32) for customs duties and taxes for something that cost about PhP 2,300 (USD 51).

“Insane!” he exclaimed. “I don’t mind paying taxes but they should be reasonable. If the tax is going to be half or more than half of the total cost then it’s totally unreasonable. And where do they use the money?” Calvin sighed.

A peso for the whistleblower: WATCH Kidapawan members raise bail bond money to support the ukay-ukay vendor who blew the whistle against alleged corruption at the Kidapawan city hall.

KIDAPAWAN CITY-- In his first State of the Nation Address, President Benigno Aquino III said he would push for the immediate passage of a bill protecting whistleblowers. If it happens, this could be the answer to the problems Lally Aniñon is facing for having exposed alleged malpractice among government employees in North Cotabato.

Aniñon is an ukay-ukay (used clothing) seller who alleged employees of the City Agriculture Office in Kidapawan were in the business of collecting illegal fees from roadside sellers like her. After her claims were broadcast on local radio here, City Mayor Rodolfo Gantuangco ordered the immediate turn-over of the collected amounts to the City Treasury.

P-Noy's maiden SONA was simple rehash and lacked teeth, some plain folks and political analysts said alike. JES AZNAR

President Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III spent a major part of his first State of the Nation Address (SONA) revealing and denouncing how the previous administration allegedly squandered and depleted the public coffers.

Aquino said just halfway through the year, only PhP 100 billion (USD 2.2 billion) or 6.5 percent of the PhP 1.54 trillion (USD 34 billion) budget for 2010 could be used for the remaining six months. And with government expenditures exceeding revenues that means the budget deficit further widened to PhP 196.7 billion (USD 4.4 billion). “Inilihim at sadyang iniligaw ang sambayanan sa totoong kalagayan ng ating bansa (The reality was hidden from our people, who seem to have been deliberately obfuscated on the real state of our nation),” Aquino said.

Is the Philippine Congress on the side of the Filipino people for a corruption-free government? Photo courtesy of www.filipinoscribbles. wordpress.com

When the 15th Congress convenes on July 26, top of the agenda will be the election of the Senate President and the Speaker of the House. This is done in the morning in readiness for the State of the Nation Address (SONA) by President Benigno Simeon Aquino III.

But with only days to go, none of the myriad political parties is commanding a parliamentary majority to ascertain victory in this congressional election. Clearly, Aquino’s landslide presidential victory wasn’t enough to pull a major force for his Liberal Party (LP).

News Analysis by Claire Delfin

P-Noy told: Walk the talk against corruption. Photo courtesy of www.news.xinhuanet.com

With his campaign slogan “Kung walang corrupt, walang mahirap (When no one is corrupt, no one is poor),” Aquino vowed to lift Filipinos out of poverty by leading a graft-free government.

Millions of people are now poised waiting for the 15th President to deliver what he pledged during his campaign.

Just as with columnists in the mainstream media, bloggers are already poised over their keyboards ready to monitor and rate his performance: “He owes it to me and to the millions of voters out there the earnest fulfilment of his promises,” wrote Dine Racoma - one of countless citizens now using the Internet to follow the fortunes of the new administration.

Raising local incomes: Taxes and non-tax revenues such as fees and charges paid for government services are part of the incomes of any local government apart from its share in the national revenue resources. KEITH BACONGCO/AKP Images

The Local Government Code (LGC) of 1991 paved the way for greater local autonomy in an effort to bring government closer to the doorsteps of the people. As local governments take on greater roles in the provision of public services, they require greater resources and the means to generate these. At the same time, greater decentralization brings with it the need to strengthen mechanisms for transparency and accountability in local government budgeting and spending.

COA: the supreme audit institution. CESAR USAPDIN

The Philippine Constitution emphasizes the importance of accountability in the government. Article XI simply and bluntly begins: “Public office is a public trust,” before it adds that officials and employees should serve the people with “responsibility, integrity, loyalty and efficiency.”

In the government budget cycle, accountability is laid down by the need for government agencies and departments submit to submit quarterly and monthly income statements; statements of allotment, obligations and balances along with other financial reports and documents for audit - a formal process whereby the authenticity, accuracy and reliability of financial accounts or transactions are checked and approved.

Starting them early: Naga city government selects and trains young leaders every summer on how to "run" city government affairs in an honest, trasparent and effective way. JOSE COLLERA

Located in the central part of the country’s Bicol region, Naga City in Camarines Sur lacks viable industries and abundant natural resources. But these deficiencies are compensated by a participatory and accountable system of local government that makes people here count their blessings.

Letting go: Congress has practically abdicated the power to thoroughly study and plan the country's budget to the executive branch. Source: www.flickr.com/ photos/bikoy/4175577463/

The annual national budget is said to be the most powerful public articulation of the government’s policy. It lays out the government’s course of actions for the country for that year. And as pundits would say it, the budget is the development policy expressed in peso terms.

The budget, after all, is the engine, the prime mover. Without it, any development plan cannot set into motion. Thus, given the magnitude of its importance, no less than the Constitution specifically provides that the budget proposed by the Executive must go through an exhaustive check in Congress before it is approved.

In time of disaster and despair: Did the emergency funds in the aftermath of Ondoy go where it should? BUCK PAGO/AKP Images

Post-disaster needs assessments conducted by the World Bank at the request of the Philippine government late last year claimed USD 4.4 billion, or over PhP 202 billion, was needed to get the country back on its feet after tropical storm Ondoy and typhoon Pepeng.

Funds were urgently needed for both relief and reconstruction work.

Being transparent: presidential son Mikey Arroyo came into question last year after VERA Files reported he failed to declare in his SALN a million-dollar bay front house in California under his wife’s name. Courtesy of Boy Santos/news.flash.org

How honest are our elected officials?

In theory, this should be easy to tell since all public officials and employees are legally obliged to report everything they own and owe in their annual Statement of Assets and Liabilities and Net Worth (SALN).

In reality, though, it is an altogether different story. It is no secret that a substantial number fail to declare their real worth for one reason or another: Officials under-declare or even fail to declare all their assets and properties. In many instances declarations are shorn of specifics, making it very difficult for government investigators and citizens to determine their real wealth and work out whether it was all accrued legally—or otherwise.

The media are crucial to creating and maintaining an atmosphere in public life that discourages fraud and corruption. CLAIRE DELFIN

Corruption is injustice, silence is consent.
-- A slogan at a public hearing on anti-corruption in India

Often viewed by many societies especially those with weak states as an inevitable fact of everyday life, corruption in its many forms, whether as transactional politics on a large scale or petty bribe-taking to “grease” infamously rusty bureaucratic wheels, thrives like fungus in dark recesses where light is easily extinguished by greed.

The Procurement Law aims to promote transparency in anything that government needs to buy, provide, or construct, including bridges and roads. KEITH BACONGCO/AKP Images

Competitive public bidding for government procurement in the Philippines began more than a century ago when the United States Philippine Commission introduced the American practice of public bidding through Act No. 22, passed on October 15, 1900 and requiring competitive bidding for the purchase of materials and lands needed for the construction of highways and bridges.¹ Several more laws were subsequently passed requiring competitive public bidding when buying government supplies as well as in contracts for public works.

he Office of the Ombudsman was built to root out corruption, irresponsibility and malfeasance of public officials. CESAR USAPDIN

Despite being one of the freest and oldest democracies in Southeast Asia and having a multitude of laws addressing graft and transparency, the Philippines is also seen as being one of the most corrupt – in fact the fourth most corrupt according to a March 2010 survey of 2,000 businessmen by the Political and Economic Risk Consultancy group.

Reports of rampant corruption in government were common in the 1950s and 1960s and the martial law years were equally marked with chronic corruption by those in power. Thus, when the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos was ousted from power in 1986, the framers of the new Constitution rooted transparency in public governance and people’s free access to information as constitutional guarantees.

Walk the talk: Private firms like SM make sure that they implement and comply with corporate governance policies they crafted. Photo courtesy of SM Prime

When Cesar Purisima accepted a Cabinet post a few years ago, he was shocked with what he saw in the public sector. Purisima, who was appointed as trade secretary in 2004 and as finance secretary in 2005, had come from the private sector, one of the country's biggest auditing firms, Sycip, Gorres & Velayo. Purisima was surprised to see how different things were in government. He particularly noticed how the private sector moved faster with its operations and was also more transparent. Purisima eventually left government and helped form the INCITEGov, a civil society group pushing for reforms in government.

Owning the budget: Congress has the Constitutional “power of the purse” yet is has been observed to barely scrutinize the national budget now that its majority members are allied to the President. The budget process must be returned to the people by helping them understand how it works, advocates for transparency say. CLAIRE DELFIN

With national and local elections just barely two months away, presidential hopefuls have been speaking out on one issue after another. Yet none of them has so far mentioned anything at all about the national budget process which independent observers claim provides huge opportunities for corruption.

Given seemingly endless allegations of fraud and financial mismanagement of public funds that plague the Philippines and see it scoring so poorly in all number of international reports and surveys, one could be forgiven for expecting contenders for the highest public office to volunteer their ideas and plans for reform: At the very least one might expect them to be challenged to provide them by a media that constantly finds itself reporting on one financial scandal after another.

Malaybalay_survey_2_Inso_Ubalde

Representatives from nominated local government programs were publicly competing to win the 2009 Galing Pook Awards when the presenter from Marikina was asked how he could be sure his authority’s process for granting business licenses and certificates was not tainted by bribery. The presenter looked visibly hurt. “Hindi po namin gawain ‘yan,” (We do not do such thing.) he answered.¹

While a water dealer in Marikina or restaurant owner in Naga City with regular dealings with their local authorities for permits might have understood and sympathized with the shocked official, for many other people around the country, dealing with local governments can be a murky business.

More say from the people: Government agencies such as the budget department are involved in budget preparation and execution but generally they don’t have means to increase participation from the public. Courtesy of DBM

The national budget is a financial plan of government or the translation of government’s programs in monetary terms. The annual budget contains the expenditures program which enumerates the different expenditure items and the respective amounts intended to be spent for each. These expenditures are supposed to achieve public purposes and be consistent with development objectives. The expenditure program, however, is just one dimension of the budget. Public expenditures are prepared and implemented with due consideration to the financial resources available to government to fund its expenditures. Thus, revenue and financing (borrowing) programs are drawn-up, along with the expenditure program, and form part of the budget.