Permanent anti-graft unit at DOF eyed

A permanent unit may be set up in the Department of Finance (DOF) to check graft in the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) and the Bureau of Customs (BOC), presidential chief of staff Rigoberto Tiglao said yesterday.

Tiglao said Finance Secretary Jose Isidro Camacho had recommended to President Arroyo the establishment of this unit, which unit would undertake anti-graft projects and conduct investigations for unexplained wealth of certain officials and employees working in agencies under the DOF, including the BIR and BOC.

"The ad hoc group in the DOF had been set up since March doing such (lifestyle) probes," Tiglao said.

Tiglao explained that the Palace-based Transparency Group, which recently began lifestyle checks on all presidential appointees, "is only coordinating and assisting and primarily formulating anti-graft policies."

The lifestyle probe is being done by legal and police experts from the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group of the Philippine National Police, headed by Director Eduardo Matillano.

He said that only the office of the presidential chief of staff is "in a position to ask everyone to submit their statement of assets and liabilities."

Tiglao also clarified that the Transparency Group is a temporary body created by the President "to jumpstart" the investigations of reports on the "unexplained wealth" of certain officials and employees in graft-ridden agencies of government.

The Transparency Group recently came under fire from government officials led by Customs commissioner Antonio Bernardo, who criticized the manner by which the lifestyle probe was "leaked to media" even before formal charges were filed with the Ombudsman against officials concerned, three of whom work at the BOC.

"The Transparency Group was set up only to help push, jumpstart the anti-graft campaign and (it’s) not a permanent unit," Tiglao said.

Tiglao’s office is in charge of the Transparency Group, which was created under the Office of the President through Administrative Order 62, which the President issued earlier this year.

The group is mandated to assist the Presidential Anti-Graft Commission in the "lifestyle" checks she has ordered on all her Cabinet officials and other presidential appointees.

The Transparency Group filed graft complaints last week with the Office of the Ombudsman against Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) Undersecretary Salvador Pleyto and BOC deputy commissioner Gil Valera.

Also charged were DPWH Region 4-B director Romeo Panganiban, BOC deputy collector in Clark Jaime Maglipon, and BOC miscellaneous division chief Flor Aguilar.

The accused government officials have allegedly accumulated real estate properties, luxury vehicles, and other assets that were "grossly disproportionate with (their) lawful income," in addition to other charges such as going on expensive foreign trips without the required travel authority from the Palace.

The filing of charges of "unexplained wealth" against the three Customs officials prompted Bernardo and his four deputies, including Valera, to tender their offers to resign to the President through Camacho, their immediate superior.

The President, however, rejected their courtesy resignations but reassured them they will get "due process" in the lifestyle checks.

Tiglao expressed concern that since these graft charges were filed last week against the five officials who flunked the lifestyle checks, certain officials of the Transparency Group have been receiving "death threats" from unnamed sources.

Meanwhile, Camacho has tapped the services of Tony Man-wai Kwok, former deputy commissioner and head of operations at the Independent Commission Against Corruption in Hong Kong. Kwok joined the ICAC in 1975.

Camacho brought Kwok to the Palace yesterday to meet with the President, whom Kwok later noted was "receptive" to his proposed strategy to fight corruption in the Philippines.

Kwok told Palace reporters he came to Manila "on the invitation" of the finance chief, who sought his help on how to conduct the Philippine government’s anti-graft campaign, which could be patterned after a successful anti-graft program that helped clean up the bureaucracy in Hong Kong.

During his meeting with the President, Kwok stressed the need for "political will" in conducting a no-nonsense anti-graft drive and supported by legislative measures passed by Congress.

Camacho said that Kwok, prior to meeting the President, conducted a seminar for DOF officials and employees, including their own lifestyle investigators.

Kwok will also conduct a series of seminars for the BIR, BOC, the Civil Service Commission and the Office of the Ombudsman to brief them on "effective" anti-corruption strategies.

"I came here for voluntary work to share my experience in Hong Kong practice in the fight against graft and corruption," Kwok told the President.

To help the Philippine government’s anti-graft campaign, Kwok recommended three strategies used by the ICAC: pursuing the corrupt through effective detection, investigation and prosecution; eliminating opportunities for corruption by introducing corruption-resistant practices; and educating the public on the evils of corruption and fostering their support in fighting corruption.