Corruption still a serious problem in RP — UN exec

A United Nations official yesterday said there is an urgent need to raise awareness among Filipinos on the need to bring to “zero level” the problem of corruption which remains a serious problem in the country.

Renaud Meyer, Coun-try Director of the United Nations Deve-lopment Program (UNDP), stressed that the whole country must be more vigilant against corruption following allegations that it has reached the highest levels of government.

“Corruption as a principle… is an infringement to human rights. It’s one of the strongest impediments that hinders the fight against poverty. So it’s no, no, no to corruption. That will be the first message and the second message is zero tolerance,” Meyer said at the UN Convention Against Corruption (UNCaC) Summit in Manila.

Meyer warned that the weak justice system, weak prosecution and lack of convictions would erode public trust and confidence in the government and its institutions.

He noted that the most important danger is when individual Filipinos start accepting corruption as a natural thing.

“We really need all of us to prevent this from

happening because if this happens then it’s going to be much more difficult to fight corruption,” the UN official said.

Over the years, long-standing problems on corruption in the Philippines, poor governance, unsound business policies and weak rule of law, have kept foreign investors at bay.

Even more disappointing is the fact that the Philippines’ development performance over the past years has been less impressive compared to neighboring states in the region as billions of pesos intended for development projects go to corruption.

In January this year, the World Bank, one of the leading financial donors to the Philippines , blacklisted seven companies—three Filipino and four Chinese—involved in road projects after an investigation found evidence of bid-rigging.

In the probe conducted by the WB, three witnesses, including a Japanese contractor, alleged that presidential spouse Jose Miguel Arroyo and other top government officials were involved in the anomaly.

Mr. Arroyo, who had been linked several times to other corruption scandals in the government, denied any wrong-doing and refused to attend Senate investigations on the $330-million construction project.

“I think it’s very important that young Filipinos still have trust in the leaders of the country, still have trust in the institutions of the country, still have trust in the systems that are running the country,” Meyer said.

“If they lose this trust, then you know we’re losing 65 percent of the population and their commitment to make the Philippines a better country for themselves. It’s a very serious trust issue and corruption is a challenge that really hurts and has the potential to undermine this trust among the people,” he added. –Michaela P. del Callar, Daily Tribune