Governance

MANILA, Philippines – The government incurred a budget deficit of P63.9 billion in March, 21.3 percent higher than the deficit incurred in the same month last year, the Department of Finance (DOF) reported yesterday.

MANILA, Philippines – Nearly six of every 10 Filipinos or 59 percent disapprove of President Arroyo’s performance, her highest disapproval score since March 2001, according to a survey by Pulse Asia.

THE Philippine government was the third-largest recipient of loan assistance among Southeast Asian countries from the Asian Development Bank (ADB) last year to counter the global economic crisis.

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SAY FOREIGN BUSINESSMEN MANILA, Philippines—The country’s strategic location can make it a regional and global logistics hub of various companies, foreign businessmen in the country said in recent forum.

Multilateral banks signed last Friday a landmark agreement that would honor firms and individuals that each had placed in a blacklist for irregularities involving projects financed by multilateral aid.

MANILA, Philippines – Entities blacklisted by key development banks will find themselves excluded from dealing with other multilateral lenders under an anti-corruption pact signed last Friday.

MANILA, Philippines – Liberal Party (LP) vice presidential candidate Sen. Manuel “Mar” Roxas II said the Philippine economy needs no magic formula to grow and improve.

MANILA, Philippines – Amid criticism that President Arroyo has made numerous political appoint-ments in the past nine years, officials claimed that her administration has the highest ratio of career service executives since 1986.

For tourist destinations, the initiative is to have gun-free zones and discipline zones. The targets are: 10 percent in 2010; 50 percent in 2020; and 100 percent in 2030.

MANILA, Philippines – Liberal Party standard-bearer Sen. Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III vowed yesterday to nullify all the illegal appointments made by President Arroyo during the election ban.

OTHER national government agencies have officials, like those of the PNP, who have taken to heart the work of reforming under the Performance Governance System (PGS) of the Institute for Solidarity in Asia. The Bureau of Internal Revenue is one of the six central government agencies that were asked by the Office of the President…

How did the Philippine National Police (PNP) become a Performance Governance System (PGS) participant? The following is a report of the PNP and the PGS. The PNP was chosen as one of the first six national government agencies to participate in a program designed to raise the standards of governance practice at the national level.

Will PNP’s good governance reforms continue? ONLY half a year after the Philippine National Police (PNP) was initiated into the Public Governance System of the Institute for Solidarity in Asia (with its balanced scorecard), the PNP has already achieved much of its goals for 2010 and is palpably on the way to accomplishing goals for…

Twice last week, thugs were in the streets, upholding pigheadedness over reason, substituting demonizing in place of civil dialogue, replacing name-calling for abiding by procedures. Incidents like this can only impoverish our civic culture.

IN JULY 2009, the administration admitted that it had failed in fighting corruption according to the target set by the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), but only by a thin margin. It declared it’s optimism to pass the MDG corruption score card by 2010.

Working to get a US$500-million anti-corruption grant from Millennium Challenge Corporation How the Arroyo administration has been failing in its efforts to meet the Millennium Development Goals (there is a 2015 deadline) is what media have been focusing on. Their facts are accurate. These negative reports also include praise for the administration where it has…

I have lately been asking fellow economists and other friends what they think to be the three most critical impediments to achieving high and inclusive (broadly beneficial) economic growth in the Philippines. The runaway winner in my little survey has been the new big, bad G word (no, not globalization; that was the old one):…

MANILA, Philippines – The United States assailed yesterday the Philippine government for failing to implement the law imposing criminal penalties for corrupt officials that encouraged graft practices with impunity.

The Social Security System (SSS) remained the top government agency in terms of sincerity in fighting corruption for the second straight year, according to results of an annual survey of Filipino business managers across the country.

Gloria’s graft-ridden gov’t root of widespread poverty—Erap It is no surprise that the Philippines under President Arroyo is again still in the bottom list of corrupt economies.

SINGAPORE: Indonesia remains the most corrupt country in Southeast Asia and graft is getting even worse, a poll of businessmen said, dealing a blow to the president’s efforts to clean up the country. The Philippines, however, was not far behind and was ranked 13th on the list of 16 countries that included developed economies for…

MANILA, Philippines – Forty-eight government agencies made it to the list of the top anti-graft champions of the Presidential Anti-Graft Commission (PAGC) for yearend 2009.

MANILA, Philippines – Businesses believe nothing much has improved in the government’s efforts to stamp out corruption, a survey by the Social Weather Stations (SWS) showed.

The top World Bank official in the country said yesterday the investment climate under the Arroyo administration remained weak due to poor governance, pervasive corruption, and lack of policy reforms.

THE recent double full-page “Ganito tayo noon, Ganito tayo ngayon” ads trumpeting the supposed achievements of President Macapagal-Arroyo bring to mind the quote attributed to 19th century British Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli: “There are three kinds of lies: Lies, damned lies, and statistics.”

OMBUDSMAN Maria Merceditas Navarro Gutierrez stays as chief graftbuster and finish her term up to November 30, 2012.

MANILA, Philippines – The National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) is pushing for the development of the rural sector through a new Medium-Term Philippine Development Plan (MTPDP).

Our country has gone through many kinds of crises. Crises that are both man made and considered acts of God. Which in my opinion is a very bad term. Why is it that we call a sad natural catastrophe an “act of God” and when times are good and victorious we credit it to ourselves?…