RP corruption ranking based on mere perception – Ombudsman

MANILA, Philippines – The Office of the Ombudsman claimed yesterday that corruption ranking of the Philippines according to the latest Washington-based Millennium Challenge Corp. (MCC) index is based on “mere perception.”

Assistant Ombudsman and spokesman Jose de Jesus Jr. said the agency believes that it is doing a good job at keeping an eye on government officials and prosecuting those who violate the Anti Graft and Corrupt Practices Act and other laws.

De Jesus was reacting on how the international community still sees the Philippines as a corrupt country following reports that the government might not get an additional $500 million worth of poverty reduction fund from the United States after Manila failed anew the MCC, which initially granted $21 million to the Philippines under the agency’s threshold program in 2007 to fund anti-corruption projects.

Foreign Affairs Secretary Alberto Romulo, however, blamed the country’s low rating on “technicalities in the evaluation” based on how the Philippines was designated from the low-income country (LIC) category in 2008 to the lower middle-income (LMIC) category in 2009 based on improved per capita income.

“On the CoC (Control of Corruption) indicator, the Philippines’ ranking has actually improved by six notches, from 39th to 33rd, above the 37th rank of the median country out of the 73 countries in the LIC list of the MCC,” Romulo said.

De Jesus told The STAR that no less than the Political and Economic Risk Consultancy (PERC) survey declared that corruption in the Philippines has gone down in 2009.

He said results of the study released last April showed that the Philippines is now in 7th place, an improvement from 9th place (with 10 being the worst).

The survey asked business managers who placed the country ahead of Indonesia, Thailand, Cambodia, India and Vietnam in efforts to stop corruption.

De Jesus said PERC reported that the problem of corruption in the Philippines is highly politicized with political mudslinging as a common occurrence.

“The extent of this political reality is enough for PERC to state that ‘the actual level of corruption in not as bad as it is often portrayed’ and ‘that corruption in the Philippines has to be discounted since many of the accusations either are grossly exaggerated or completely false’,” he explained. –Michael Punongbayan (The Philippine Star)