Governance

Secretary Ronaldo Puno of the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) announced yesterday the creation of the Coordinating Committee of Decentralization (CCD) tasked to address problems and issues concerning the implementation of the government’s decentralization program.

MANILA, Philippines—If Filipinos are wondering how government officials and employees become millionaires overnight, buying expensive cars, moving to upscale homes, or taking frequent trips abroad, the answers can be partly found by checking their Statement of Assets, Liabilities and Networth (SALN).

It comes and goes yearly—the National Correctional Awareness Week—without the Congress and the Executive announcing a new initiative to reform the penal system and give thousands of inmates a second chance in life.

Amid the lingering problem of corruption in government, the Philippines is poised to secure an additional $5.5 million grant from a US government aid agency to allow the government to conduct studies on investments and cost estimates of projects that will best benefit the marginalized, the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) has said.

MANILA, Philippines – The Philippines is facing the worst of times, Finance Secretary Margarito Teves said yesterday as he announced that the country’s budget deficit has widened to P237.5 billion during the first nine months of this year, a sharp 345 percent increase from the P53.4 billion deficit incurred in the same period last year…

Over the weekend, one of our friends, Pastor Manny Carlos shared a statement that his hair stylist made about flood victims.

MANILA, Philippines – American businessmen are now generally more satisfied with the business environment in the Philippines than last year, although major concerns such as corruption continue to weigh on their business plans, results of a survey on business expectations by the American Chamber of Commerce (AmCham) showed.

“Presidentiables” made news doling relief goods plastered with their names and photos. The self-publicity was cheap. They used Storm Ondoy’s floods to make victims owe them debts of gratitude for “kindness”, translatable into votes. Observers had to advise that the hungry accept the aid but reject the abusers. Some called for filing of electioneering charges.…

Saying that graft and corruption are a fact of life in the Philippines, Transparency International (TI) in its Global Corruption Report 2009 traced the root of most of the biggest corruption-tainted projects in the country to multimillion-dollar foreign-assisted projects involving foreign firms.

The level of corruption in the private sector remains “disturbingly high” for developing countries, including the Philippines, particularly in getting government contracts, according to a Transparency International (TI) report. In its Global Corruption Report 2009: Corruption and the Private Sector, the watchdog said that it was not uncommon for domestic firms and multinationals “to pay…

MANILA, Philippines – Thirty-seven government agencies have made it to the list of the top 10 “anti-graft champions” of the Presidential Anti-Graft Commission (PAGC) for the first semester of this year, many of them sharing the same slots in the mid-end segments of the rankings.

MANILA, Philippines – The government’s budget deficit swelled to P210 billion as of end-August, only P40 billion shy of the revised fiscal gap ceiling of P250 billion for the whole year and a sharp 561.5-percent increase from the P31.7-billion deficit registered in the same period last year, the Department of Finance (DOF) reported yesterday.

For the World Bank to say that doing business in the Philippines is about the same level of difficulty as doing business in Cambodia is an indictment. Of course it depends how you measure it and the World Bank has, as is to be expected, taken an intelligent view on its assessment method. I would…

MANILA – Filipinos are dissatisfied with how the government has responded to the global economic crisis, with a BBC World Service-commissioned survey placing their disappointment level as the third highest among 20 countries.

Over 200 government agencies and corporations have pledged to intensify implementation of their Moral Renewal Action Plans to boost public service and produce lasting results before President Gloria Arroyo’s term expires on June 30 next year, an official said yesterday.

MANILA, Philippines – At least P100 million is being lost to bribery in the Philippines yearly, reinforcing the country’s reputation as one of the world’s most corruption-laden economies, the global corruption watchdog Transparency International (TI) said.

The Philippines dropped 16 notches in the latest World Economic Forum (WEF) World Competitiveness Report to No. 87 out of 133 countries. Singapore ranked No. 3, Malaysia 24th, Thailand 36th, and Indonesia at 54th. The Philippines was at the bottom in a list of 23 Asian countries in the earlier World Bank competitiveness survey.

MANILA, Philippines – The Philippines further slipped in the World Bank’s annual ranking of economies based on the ease of doing business in their respective domains.

MANILA, Philippines – The Philippines dropped from 71st place to 87th in the latest Global Competitiveness Index prepared by the World Economic Forum.

MANILA, Philippines – Four out of 10 Filipinos disapprove of President Arroyo’s performance and continue to distrust her, according to the latest Pulse Asia survey released yesterday.

MANILA, Philippines – A new movement pushing for a moral force aimed at combating widespread corruption in government was formally launched yesterday with its founder, Chief Justice Reynato Puno, calling on Filipinos to choose leaders who are “true, good and right” in next year’s polls.

THE National Competitiveness Council (NCC) is pushing for so-called five-star projects to boost the country’s rankings in competitiveness surveys.

Tomorrow morning, the Senate economic affairs committee will conduct yet another public hearing. This time the subject of the hearing will be the various infomercials airing on television extolling the achievements of various government departments.

MANILA, Philippines – The Arroyo administration’s net satisfaction rating improved by eight points to a still “poor” –11 percent, a Social Weather Stations survey for the second quarter of 2009 said.

Transparency and strong public-private partnership led the City of San Fernando to be the first city in the Philippines to achieve a Performance Governance System (PGS)-institutionalized status.

The moment I got the news I never wanted to hear, there was nothing else to do but cry. I have written two columns expressing my support for former President Corazon Cojuangco Aquino after she started her battle with colon cancer. I had been praying fervently for a miraculous recovery for her, joining the rest…

While most of the focus today is on President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, many of the people who should be accountable for the true State of the Nation will be more concerned about their seating arrangement, how they’ll look and what they will be saying during the ambush interviews post SONA.

Her handlers portray her as a hardworking president, but after eight years in power, Gloria Arroyo is looking more like being long on show and short on substance.

9 years of Arroyo: A review A few hits here, a few misses there (Editor’s Note: On the occasion of the ostensibly final State of the Nation Address of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo on July 27, the Philippine Daily Inquirer presents this review of her governance which runs into its ninth year by the time she…

Second in a series on President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo’s 9th State of the Nation Address A yearly calendar of shock-and-awe stories that involve corruption in high places and weak leadership.