Body needed to ensure zero-tolerance of sleaze

Eagerly awaited is President Rody Duterte’s hotline to which citizens can report corruption. He has a Malacañang anti-graft call center all planned out. It shall be open 24 hours, with ten complaints takers per shift. Reach shall be nationwide, via 8-8-8-8.

That’s an innovative start for Duterte’s war against government sleaze. He promises zero-tolerance of graft from now on. So fed up are Filipinos with extortionate bureaucrats that they want drastic action. If narco-traffickers summarily can be executed, then why not grafters too, some ask?

There’s a feeling that the independent constitutional commissions are inadequate. The Commissions on Audit and on Civil Service mostly monitor public spending and personnel eligibility. There’s an Ombudsman to probe and prosecute grafters and plunderers, but it moves so slow.

Supplementary offices invariably are formed. The Judiciary has its internal mechanism for reporting, preventing, and punishing abuse and misconduct by judges. So does the Legislative, via the Senate and House committees on ethics, and disciplinary offices for congressional staff.

The Executive, being the largest of the three government branches, needs its own anti-corruption body – for the 8,000 or so presidential appointees.

There used to be, during the Ramos tenure, a Presidential Anti-Graft Commission. That it held office right in Malacañang made many appointees afraid to go astray. Adopted later by the Arroyo admin, the group served as “assistant investigator” to the Ombudsman for erring presidential appointees.

Noynoy Aquino abolished the unit upon assumption to office. Its functions were transferred to the Office of the Deputy Executive Secretary for Legal Affairs. Demoted in priority and visibility, anti-corruption soon was forgotten during Aquino’s six years of “Daang Matuwid.” Pork barrels, food smuggling, and transport crony contracting ensued. The rule for Aquino appointees seemed to be “to each his own racket.” Result: worse poverty, criminality, and deforestation; food shortages and price surges; mega traffic, among others.

Duterte is changing all that. He gives appointees a free hand to do their work, but holds them answerable for corruption by subordinates. If his men are to be kept on the straight and narrow, then it’s time to reactivate the Malacañang-level anti-graft body.

The Malacañang call center shall be the frontline of citizen involvement. Behind it would be an organization to process the complaints, determine courses of action, and punish the guilty. Its mission should be to enforce Duterte’s zero-tolerance of corruption.

A basic function is to enforce anti-corruption laws. Foremost are the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act (R.A. 3019), Unexplained Wealth Forfeiture Act (R.A. 1379), Code of Conduct and Ethical Standards for Public Officials and Employees (R.A. 6713), Ban on Gifts (P.D. 46), and the provisions of the Revised Penal Code against bribery, extortion and incompetence.

The unit can also conduct regular lifestyle checks, especially at the Bureaus of Internal Revenue and of Customs. It can recommend instant punishment, like public censure, suspension, and dismissal. And it must assist the Ombudsman in building up criminal cases.

The job is immense. Presidential appointees include Cabinet secretaries and presidential advisers; under- and assistant secretaries; bureau and regional directors; high police, military, and law enforcement officers; and directors in government corporations.

Sufficiently funded, the unit can even pay out rewards to whistleblowers, audit the performance of frontline agencies, and study the streamlining of operations. Crucially, it can link up with NGOs to pinpoint grafters not only in national offices but also local government units.

If such a body is formed, it must learn from mistakes and weaknesses of predecessors. There were two glaring faults during the Arroyo tenure. One was that, whenever the presidential commission recommended a high official for punishment, a Council of Peers under the Executive Secretary would conduct a “trial.” The other was that the big man often interceded for his appointee-pals. The erring officials invariably got off the hook.

A presidential anti-graft body thus should be insulated from power brokers. Since Duterte is determined to eliminate corruption along with the drug menace, the anti-graft unit must report to him alone.

The fear factor is effective. That Duterte has a General “Bato” (Rock) as anti-drug enforcer scares the police into wiping out drug lords. One can just imagine what would happen if he had another such general to handle corruption. Appointees would know that Big Brother always is watching.

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