A renewed campaign

Here's the dishonor roll, according to President Estrada: Bureau of Internal Revenue, Bureau of Customs, Department of Public Works and Highways, Department of Environment and Natural Resources, Department of Education, Culture and Sports, National Irrigation Administration, Department of Health, Department of the Interior and Local Government, National Power Corp. and the Bureau of Immigration.

These agencies are the most graft-prone in the executive branch, President Estrada said yesterday. Having identified the agencies, the President vowed to wage "a massive campaign for simplification and transparency" in government procedures so that by the end of his term in 2004, his efforts to stamp out graft and corruption would have paid off. Invoking command responsibility, he ordered the heads of these agencies to take the lead in curbing corruption.

Reiterating that the campaign against graft is one of his administration's five priorities, the President sought the help of the nation's spiritual leaders. In doing so, he could not resist a dig at the Church. He said that graft being "a moral problem... a breakdown of values, indeed, ... a spiritual failure, our spiritual leaders and our moral guardians should perhaps spend more time in their proper mission than in other distractions."

Having heard many promises over the past 18 months to stamp out corruption, one finds it tempting to dismiss the President's declaration of a renewed war against graft as nothing but executive rhetoric. Naming the targets of this latest declaration of war, however, gives the campaign some focus. The agencies identified by the President are the same ones named in a recent study about corruption in this country. Malacañang has also received recommendations from the World Bank on how to stamp out corruption. With the targets identified, and with proposed measures to deal with this problem, the campaign against corruption may finally yield results.