MANILA, Philippines - The three branches of government have agreed to further step up the fight against corruption by adopting measures and passing bills – such as on freedom of information – that could help curb the menace.
Presidential Communications Operations Office Secretary Herminio Coloma Jr. said the three branches of government had agreed on the Philippines’ commitments to the United Nations Convention Against Corruption (UNCAC).
Coloma said in the past year the people spoke loudest against corruption and the misuse of public funds.
Last week, Coloma said the leaders of the three branches of government – executive, legislative and judiciary – stood on the same platform with the Office of the Ombudsman to declare a unified stand in support of the UNCAC.
A resolution containing the government’s commitments on the UNCAC was presented and submitted by Senate President Franklin Drilon, Speaker Feliciano Belmonte, Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno, Ombudsman Conchita Carpio-Morales and Executive Secretary Paquito Ochoa Jr. to President Aquino, Coloma said.
Among the significant actions they agreed to implement were: creation by Congress of more divisions in the Sandiganbayan to unclog its dockets and hasten the disposition of pending anti-graft cases; strengthening of the Witness Protection Law and Anti-Money Laundering Law; enactment of the Whistleblowers Act; codification of anti-corruption laws criminalizing bribery in the private sector, active and passive trading of influence; amendments to the forfeiture law, the extradition law and the Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty, and passage of the Freedom of Information bill.
Coloma said Ombudsman Morales reported 85 percent compliance by the country on international cooperation agreements and 65 percent compliance on criminalization and law enforcement.
The UN General Assembly adopted the UNCAC in 2003. It is the first legally binding international anti-corruption instrument that requires states and parties to implement, through laws, institutions, programs and practices, a wide range of measures to prevent, detect, prosecute and sanction corruption and recover its proceeds.
The UNCAC was signed on Dec. 9, 2003 by 140 states, including the Philippines, and was ratified by the Philippine Senate on Nov. 8, 2006.
At that time, the Philippines was only the second country in Southeast Asia and the fifth country in Asia to have done so.
After this so-called “lost decade,†Aquino said last week that “our first actions were not to build on what has been achieved, but to fill the fissures in our public institutions†with the following important elements in the fight against corruption.
First of these was vigorous implementation of the concept that no one could be above the law, as exemplified by the filing of cases against a former president, and the impeachment of a chief justice and the relentless prosecution of smugglers and tax evaders through the filing of 423 cases to date.