Herrera pushes civic anti-graft body

People Power Coalition senatorial candidate Ernesto Herrera has vowed to push for the passage of a bill providing for the creation of a civic anti-graft body.

"The idea of putting up an anti-graft body that is separate from and independent of vested partisan interests has a lot of merit," Herrera said.

"We cannot help it. There is this perception that once politicians or bureaucrats are involved in investigating graft, the results tend to be less than desirable," Herrera pointed out.

The non-government Institute for Popular Democracy first advanced the creation of a civic anti-corruption body with legislative basis.

Herrera said an individual with impeccable integrity should head the proposed civic anti-graft body.

"More important, that body must be empowered and provided the wherewithal not only to investigate, but also to prosecute on its own all cases brought before it," Herrera stressed.

"It would not be right for the body to simply investigate cases, and then refer them to the Department of Justice or the Office of the Ombudsman for prosecution," Herrera said.

Herrera brushed aside claims that the proposed civic anti-graft body would only duplicate the function of existing anti-graft agencies, including the revived Presidential Commission Against Graft and Corruption.

"There is nothing wrong with having several centers in the fight to stamp out official cheating. To begin with, the problem has become too massive to be handled by just one or two centers," Herrera said.

"In fact, it has become imperative for us to establish as many new anti-corruption centers as possible outside government," Herrera concluded.