Governance

By: Ben O. de Vera – Reporter / @bendeveraINQ Philippine Daily Inquirer / 05:32 AM March 31, 2022 MANILA, Philippines — With President Rodrigo Duterte as its chief executive, the Philippines remained among the countries where crony capitalism — where a few favored businessmen close to the government enjoy more economic advantages than others — has been flourishing. The…

by Elizabeth Marcelo – The Philippine Star, 31 Dec 2021 In P1.67 billion projects MANILA, Philippines — The Commission on Audit (COA) has flagged 21 state universities and colleges (SUCs) over “deficiencies” in the implementation of various projects and programs amounting to P1.67 billion.

by Alexis Romero – Philstar.com, 25 Nov 2021 MANILA, Philippines — Malacañang on Thursday vowed to sustain its drive for a clean government after the Philippines got a “modest” rating in a global assessment of corruption risks in state defense institutions.

by Bella Perez-Rubio – Philstar.com, 29 Oct 2021 MANILA, Philippines — Filipino producers of personal protective equipment this week aired their concern over the government’s procurement process which they claim favors traders and importers and results in the “dumping of substandard PPE” in the country.

by Delon Porcalla – The Philippine Star, 21 Oct 2021 MANILA, Philippines — Ombudsman Samuel Martires is proposing to amend the 32-year-old Code of Conduct and Ethical Standards for Public Officials and Employees (Republic Act 6713) to provide fines and jail term for commentaries made on public officials’ statement of assets and liabilities (SALNs).

by Helen Flores – The Philippine Star, 5 Sep 2021 MANILA, Philippines — Amid investigations into the reported mishandling of COVID-19 funds, the Duterte administration has formed the National Anti-Corruption Coordinating Council (NACC) to hasten the detection of irregularities in all levels of government.

by Philstar.com, 20 Aug 2021 MANILA, Philippines — The chairman of the Senate’s basic education panel will launch an inquiry into the Department of Education’s readiness for a prolonged distance learning scenario ahead of the opening of School Year 2021-2022.

by Alexis Romero – Philstar.com, 17 Aug 2021 MANILA, Philippines — President Rodrigo Duterte has ordered agencies to ignore the reports of the Commission on Audit and has asked state auditors to stop publishing their initial findings that “condemn” departments and officials and create impressions that they are corrupt.

By David Tristan Yumol, Kristel Limpot, and Bamba Galang, CNN Philippines, 17 Aug 2021 Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, August 17) — President Rodrigo Duterte blasted the Commission on Audit for its recent audit report on the Department of Health, which uncovered some ₱67.3-billion worth of “deficiencies” in the management of COVID-19 funds.

By: Julie M. Aurelio, 15 Aug 2021 MANILA, Philippines — “Insufficient internal control measures” in granting aid to workers affected by the pandemic have led to excessive payments, denied claims, and unclaimed cash aid in money remittance centers.

by Christian Deiparine (Philstar.com), 11 Aug 2021 MANILA, Philippines — Heavy numbers are ahead in this story. And for the millions affected by the coronavirus crisis in the Philippines, they may be disheartening. The Commission on Audit has released its report on the Department of Health’s COVID-19 spending last year. The audit report looked into…

Corruption Perceptions Index 2020 11. UK🇬🇧19. Japan🇯🇵23. France🇫🇷25. USA🇺🇸32. Spain🇪🇸52. Italy🇮🇹57. Malaysia🇲🇾69. S. Africa🇿🇦78. China🇨🇳86. India🇮🇳92. Colombia🇨🇴94. Brazil🇧🇷102. Indonesia🇮🇩124. Mexico🇲🇽129. Russia🇷🇺149. Nigeria🇳🇬176. Venezuela🇻🇪@anticorruption pic.twitter.com/ArKWkD4Erg — Informal Economy (@EconomyInformal) August 7, 2021

by Dindo Manhit, 6 Aug 2021 After five years of the Duterte presidency, the administration’s governance and performance certainly merit scrutiny.

By Ruth Abbey Gita-Carlos, 26 Jul 2021 MANILA – President Rodrigo Duterte has maintained high approval and trust scores despite the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) pandemic for over a year now, according to the latest survey by a political consultancy firm.

(Philstar.com), 7 Jul 2021 MANILA, Philippines — The Anti-Red Tape Authority on Wednesday reminded government workers to observe proper office hours and set up public assistance desks in their facilities to give continued service to the public.

By Ben O. de Vera, 2 Jul 2021 Bureaucratic red tape—those unnecessary paperwork, documents and procedures that take time—has prevented the government from spending billions of pesos to address the COVID-19 pandemic.

by Evelyn Macairan (The Philippine Star), 2 Jul 2021 MANILA, Philippines — The Supreme Court (SC) in full session has ruled that the right of access to information on a public official’s statement of assets, liability and net worth (SALN) is “not an absolute vested right.”

READ: President Duterte signs Executive Order 138 on full devolution of certain functions of the Executive branch to local governments (1/3) @TheManilaTimes pic.twitter.com/S114DMAiEo — Catherine Valente (@tmtcathyvalente) June 2, 2021

by Xave Gregorio (Philstar.com), 30 Mar 2021 MANILA, Philippines —A command center created to refer COVID-19 patients to hospitals has apparently been unreachable at times during the current surge in cases due to its “very basic” setup.

Read more here.

by Ian Nicolas Cigaral (Philstar.com), 4 Mar 2021 MANILA, Philippines — Corruption, bureaucratic red tape, and preferential treatment of the powerful compounded increasing trade barriers to pull down the Philippines in the latest annual gauge of economic freedom.

by Christian Deiparine (Philstar.com), 10 Feb 2021 MANILA, Philippines (Updated Feb. 11, 7:31 a.m.) — Filipinos in the policy, research, business, civil society and media communities had the lowest approval rating for their government’s response to the pandemic among Southeast Asian countries, a new online survey made public on Wednesday has found.

By Helen Flores(Philstar.com), 30 Jan 2021 MANILA, Philippines — The Philippines dropped two spots in the 2020 Corruption Perception Index (CPI) drawn up by anti-corruption watchdog Transparency International.

Read more here.

By: Solita Collas-Monsod, Philippine Daily Inquirer, 28 Nov 2020 What has the country lost to COVID-19? This column will not deal with the number of deaths (8,242), or the number of cases (424,297), or translate these into all sorts of indicators, like number of work days lost or amount of income foregone, or medical expenses,…

by Delon Porcalla (The Philippine Star), 23 Sep 2020 MANILA, Philippines — There will be no more lifestyle checks on officials suspected of stealing taxpayers’ money, according to Ombudsman Samuel Martires, who called the procedure “illogical.”

Read more here.

Read more here.

By: Solita Collas-Monsod, Philippine Daily Inquirer, 12 Sep 2020 As I reported to you earlier, Reader, the Philippine Development Plan 2017-22, whose priorities admittedly (by President Duterte himself in its foreword) were guided by his 0+10 point Socio-Economic Agenda, has an accompanying Results Matrix.

Read more here.