Corruption: Only a perception?

Published by the Visayan Daily Star Publications, Inc.

NINFA R. LEONARDIA Editor-in-Chief & President

CARLA P. GOMEZ Editor GUILLERMO TEJIDA III Desk Editor NANETTE L. GUADALQUIVER Busines Editor CEDELF P. TUPAS Sports Editor RENE GENOVE Bureau Chief, Dumaguete MAJA P. DELY Advertising Coordinator

CARLOS ANTONIO L. LEONARDIA Administrative Officer

One could only be astounded at the audacity of a Philippine official who wrote to the international group called Transparency International and scored it for giving the country very low rankings in its yearly survey on corruption covering some 163 nations.

Last year, the Philippines was Number 121 on the list, which means only 42 others were more corrupt.

The official, identified as Constancia de Guzman of the Presidential Anti-Graft Commission, told the TI that she wants the Philippines excluded from its annual Corruption Perception Index, or CPI, saying their processes are "devoid of an acceptable manner and accurate inputs". She also told the TI that her office cannot allow its work "to tarnish our country's image and dampen the spirits of our citizenry…"

Such heroics would, doubtless earn her a lot of brownie points from the Office of the President, under which her office belongs, but it is doubtful if the President herself would appreciate her efforts. Since it is very clearly indicated that the survey is based on the Corruption PERCEPTION Index of a country, it should have been the responsibility of the PAGC to supply what it calls the accurate data that would prove, once and for all, how clean and how completely free of graft and corruption the operations of our government departments and agencies are, how totally impossible it is for us to land on such a low rank on its listing.

There is nothing Filipinos would like to hear more than the confirmation that their country has been totally freed from the tentacles of graft and corruption and is shining up there among such topnotchers as, say, Singapore, or some Scandinavian states. But day-to-day encounters with bribe-seeking government workers, law-enforcers, even airport and customs officers, continue to confirm to the ordinary Filipino citizen that it is not even just a perception, but corruption in our poor country is still deeply ingrained. Maybe many Filipinos are even surprised why there are 42 other countries ranked below us.*