Phl cites anti-corruption efforts

MANILA, Philippines — With the prospect of again missing sizeable US aid due to corruption issues, the Duterte administration said yesterday its relentless fight against graft should convince the Millennium Challenge Corp. (MCC) to continue providing development assistance after an initial five-year grant of $434 million expired in May last year.

The government made the appeal barely a year after Duterte declared the Philippines could survive without MCC after the latter deferred its vote on aid for Manila, citing human rights concerns.

The Philippines fell short of the “control of corruption” target on the MCC’s scorecard for fiscal year 2018, which determines a country’s eligibility for assistance. The country also scored low in rule of law.

The MCC, an independent aid agency created by the US Congress in 2004, earlier announced the Philippines is among the countries being considered for a new millennium challenge compact for 2018.

Presidential spokesman Harry Roque said the rating “may not completely reflect the reform initiatives of the Duterte administration in the area of fighting corruption and good governance.” 

Duterte has fired government officials over corruption allegations, ordered agencies to open their records to the public, cut red tape and set up a hotline for people to report graft, Roque said in a statement.

“We are hopeful that the MCC board would take into account these initiatives and see our commitment to further reforms in the areas covered by the compact assistance,” he said.

“We have to understand that for this year’s scorecard, the ratings in the various indicators were based on their methodologies in 2014, 2015 and 2016,” he added.

He cited the administration’s thrust “towards restoring people’s faith and trust in the government by making government services accessible to the public through the implementation of the freedom of information in the executive branch.”

The government’s vigorous revenue-collection efforts, he stressed, prompted big-time tax delinquents, such as Mighty Corp., Sunvar Realty Development Corp. and Philippine Air Lines to make settlement arrangements.

Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III also weighed in, saying the President had been “relentless in the campaign against corruption in government.”

He emphasized that Duterte “cleansed the corruption-plagued” Bureau of Corrections weeks after assuming his position by replacing prison guards with elite personnel from the Special Action Force (SAF) of the Philippine National Police. Last month, he said Duterte set up the Presidential Anti-Corruption Commission (PACC) to investigate cases against presidential appointees.

“We have been informed that we are at the median level in these two indicators, which we believe we can improve as we work together with the MCC to enlighten them about our effective efforts to weed out corruption in the Philippine bureaucracy,” Dominguez said.  

Time lags

The MCC website states that its country scorecards use information collected from independent, third-party sources for “an objective comparison of all candidate countries.”

However, Dominguez noted there were time lags in the third-party data used by the MCC in assessing the eligibility of a country.

The finance chief said the two indicators, in the Philippines’ case, were based on quantitative assessments and perception surveys collected by the World Bank Worldwide Governance Indicators in conjunction with the Brookings Institution, based on information and events that happened in 2016.

“The scorecards are only one of the factors that the MCC Board takes into consideration when making re-selection decisions. We are confident that the board will take into consideration relevant information and recent data on our very deliberate efforts to improve the ‘control of corruption’ and adherence to the ‘rule of law’ indicators,” Dominguez said.

Dominguez said the government also set up the 8888 Citizens Complaint Hotline in October last year to receive complaints against corruption and inefficiencies.

Duterte took power on a platform of battling crime, drugs and graft, but is himself being investigated by an independent anti-graft body over allegations of non-disclosure of wealth when he was mayor of Davao City.

He raised the prospect of severing ties with Washington after being infuriated by US criticism of his war on drugs, which has claimed more than 3,900 lives since he took office 16 months ago.

In December last year, the MCC expressed concerns over violations of rule of law in the country and suspended its grant.

“This decision reflects the (MCC) Board’s significant concerns around rule of law and civil liberties in the Philippines,” US embassy spokesperson Molly Koscina said then in a statement.

– With Reuters