Impunity and Corruption: Birds of the same Feathers!

Unfortunately, that’s the truth. Powerful perpetrators involved in corruption can too often stymie enforcement against them by interfering with the justice system. Furthermore, investigations are complex, take ‘ages’, and are expensive. Unfortunately, the Philippines is Number One in the world when it comes to impunity.

Very recently, candidates for the barangay elections were gunned down. The latest deadly assaults highlight impunity that has been reinforced in this country over the years. Perpetrators clearly believe they can get away with murder. Dispelling this belief must be a priority of those tasked to keep the public safe.

To tackle this “impunity problem”, reforms of the local justice system are needed also. I don’t see any proposals; everybody is complaining about the severe backlogs in cases throughout all courts only.

The proposal for a stand-alone court deserves careful study.

As a first step in that discussion, it would be important to analyze and discuss the problem of grand corruption and its precise manifestations and challenges. This means analyzing the type of criminal activity, the negative impact, and the reason for impunity.

Transparency International has been working with a group of experts to develop a new legal definition of grand corruption: “a definition that captures the problem we are trying to deal with when discussing new infrastructure. Grand corruption is defined as having three main features:

• a corruption scheme;

• involvement of a high-level public official; and

• serious harm caused, which may take the form of large-scale misappropriation of public resources or gross violations of human rights.”

This kind of definition could be used to trigger the jurisdiction of an international anti-corruption court or another specialized body or mechanism.

Another option would be to introduce the specialized body at the national level, in association with special procedural measures relating to jurisdiction, statutes of limitation, immunities, sanctions, standing for victims and the like. If this were to be supported by the Philippine Government and both Houses of Congress, the two main issues could be addressed: Corruption and Impunity could be fought.

It is good to hear that policy makers should institutionalize public participation in government supply deals to deter corruption. The Integrity Initiative has pushed this for years and succeeded in convincing quite a number of local governments to accept NGO participation in their procurement process.

These options need to be evaluated, and possible combinations of options, according to a range of criteria, including political feasibility, effectiveness, and cost - criteria that are to some extent interconnected.

When I discussed these issues with one expert, he gave me a disappointing comment: “Those who could make a change are benefitting from the present situation”.

Let me conclude with a statement of Peter Obi of the Grassroots Mobilization:

“No country can progress if it’s POLITICS is more profitable than it’s INDUSTIES. In a country where those in government are richer than entrepreneurs, they manufacture poverty.”

Feedback is welcome; you can reach me at [email protected]