According to the latest report of Transparency International, Philippines’s corruption got
worsen as it was ranked in the 113th spot on the 2019 Corruption Perception Index with
a score of 34, which is considered to be the lowest ranking of the Philippines for the past
seven years.
In accordance with the ranking of the Philippines in the latest corruption perception index,
Presidential Spokesperson and Chief Legal Counsel Salvador Panelo admitted that the
Duterte Administration is struggling to eradicate the rampant and unending corruption
here in the Philippines.
"We are in fact struggling because the President's hands are tied by the due process
clause of the Constitution," the presidential spokesman said.
"It will be different if all of these who have been appointed by the President, he can dismiss
all of them outright. You have to file charges against them, you need evidence to back
your complaint," he added.
"It would do good for us to sack more corrupt officials, provided of course that there's
evidence to show that they are," Panelo added, citing the need for authentic evidence
and attestations to back up such complaints.
Despite of this, Salvador Panelo still claimed that the administration’s campaign against
corruption is not a failure.
“We’ve been fighting corruption and as we have seen, the President has been firing top
officials. And the complaints against erring government officials have been charged in the
ombudsman and in courts,” he added.
The President has promised not to tolerate even a sign of corruption under his
administration and has terminated several officials, including his Cabinet members, who
were linked to irregularities and corruption-related issues.
However, Duterte’s critics doubt his seriousness of his campaign about ending the
corruption in the country, stating that he is even appointing some of the officials he has
fired previously into a new position in the government.
Furthermore, way back from his presidential campaign in 2016, he vowed to the Filipino
people that he will end the corruption during his presidency.
“Hihinto talaga ang korupsyon. It must stop. Binigyan ko nga ang sarili ko, 3 months to 6
months. Kasi kung ako ang magpresidente, isa, dalawang buwan, hindi ko mahinto itong
kaputahan sa Pilipinas, hindi talaga ito mahinto kahit bigyan mo ako ng 10 taon,” he said.
Until now, President Duterte’s promise to eradicate corruption within a timespan of three
to six months has never been fulfilled yet. But despite of it, we can also notice that our
beloved president is really trying his best not just to accomplish all his promises but as
well as his ways to help improve the lives of every Filipino.
In line with the massive corruption that our country is facing today, one of the main
reasons why corruption can never be resolved is because of nepotism in which some
elected government officials uses their power to appoint their families or relatives into
government positions. Whereby, the Civil Service Commission (CSC), reminds all
government officials to avoid doing nepotism because this kind of act is punishable by
law. It is stated in Book V, Title I(A), Chapter 8, Section 59 of Executive Order No. 292,
also known as the Administrative Code of 1987, in which it prohibits nepotic appointments
or those made in favor of a relative of the appointing or recommending authority, or of the
chief of bureau or office, or of the persons exercising immediate supervision over the
appointee.
Under Section 79 of the Local Government Code of 1991, the proscription stretches to
the appointing or recommending official’s relatives within the fourth degree of
consanguinity or affinity, such as first cousin or first cousin-in-law (4th degree).
The CSC elaborated that nepotism is a form of corruption or abuse of authority that
violates Article IX(B), Section 2(2) of the 1987 Philippine Constitution which states,
“Appointments in the civil service shall be made only according to merit and fitness to be
determined, as far as practicable, and, except to positions which are policy-determining,
primarily confidential, or highly technical, by competitive examination.”
“Generally, appointments in the civil service should be based on merit and fitness to
ensure a competent and professional workforce. There are rules and qualification
standards that must be considered when choosing to appoint people in government,”
CSC Chairperson Alicia dela Rosa-Bala said.
Moreover, due to uncontrollable act of nepotism, corruption will extend further to one of
its major causes which is political dynasties. The widespread prevalence of politicians
who are members of a political dynasty, misuse a massive amount of tax money in which
they use it as a source of fund for the next election. More specifically, this kind of act is
also expansive in the local government setting wherein many government officials
exploits public funds for their personal gains.
Because of these substantial exploitations done by the public officials, it resulted to many
factors that affects the growth and improvement of the Filipinos and the country, such as
poor quality infrastructures that are being built, lack of financial support for the remote
and rural areas like funding for a better health care or educational facilities, or even
substandard materials that are being used for road infrastructure projects.
Regardless of declaration mandated by the 1987 Constitution which states in Article II
Section 26 that, "The State shall guarantee equal access to opportunities for public
service, and prohibit political dynasties as may be defined by law," several political
families still neglects this proclamation because there are still members of a political
family that holds a higher position in the government office in which they can use their
power to withstand the proclamation of the 1987 Constitution.
Finally, as a citizen of a democratic country, we, the Filipinos, should stand for the
betterment of our country and fight for what is just and right. And let us all advocate
ourselves to help our country solve major issues that we are facing today such as
corruption. Hopefully, with consistent political and social efforts, we can get rid of corruption.