'Political will needed to fight corruption'

MANILA, Philippines - It is still possible for the Philippines to eradicate corruption, but winning the fight depends on the political will of all stakeholders, including the public, and the strict enforcement of effective strategies.

Anti-graft expert Tony Kwok, an adviser to President Arroyo, sent this message across at a recent seminar-workshop on corruption prevention of the Presidential Anti-Graft Commission (PAGC) held at the University of the Philippines-National College of Public Administration and Governance.

The PAGC workshop was aimed at identifying corruption vulnerabilities in various government agencies and generate from the participants specific measures to address them.

To orient the participants on the process, Kwok presented various case studies and asked them to provide the appropriate courses of action for each of the corruption vulnerabilities in order to achieve system integrity.

The workshop kicked off with PAGC chief Secretary Constancia de Guzman encouraging the participants to share the experiences of their agencies in fighting graft, reminding them that corruption vulnerabilities could be prevented and controlled through ethical leadership, individual integrity, monitoring and deterrence.

Marcela Malaluan, deputy executive director of the Bureau of Immigration, and Chief Superintendent Samson Tucay (retired) of the Philippine National Police-Program Management Office, presented the best practices and success stories in their respective agencies.

Corruption prevention is one of the four major strategies that constitute the Integrity Development Action Plan (IDAP), the government’s national anti-corruption framework. The other three are education, deterrence (investigation and prosecution), and strategic partnership (multisectoral involvement).