Governance

MANILA, Philippines – Rising housing and living costs, as well as corruption and poor infrastructure, continue to bother American businessmen in the Philippines, according to a recent survey of the American Chamber of Commerce (AmCham) covering firms operating in Southeast Asia.

MANILA, Philippines – Administration congressmen are questioning the additional P6.2 billion in the proposed budget of the Department of Agriculture (DA) purportedly to finance Stage II of what they dub as “ghost irrigation projects” for 2012.

A ranking member of the House of Representatives yesterday junked the results of a survey claiming that at least 90 percent of respondents believed that Congress and the Judiciary are not doing their best in the fight against corruption.

There is no excerpt because this is a protected post.

CIVIL SOCIETY organizations (CSOs) yesterday presented findings of their monitoring of state programs to the Department of Budget and Management (DBM), as part of preparations for the full participation of such groups in the crafting of the 2013 budget.

LOCAL CHAPTERS of a business chamber have expressed concern over policies and practices that hinder business activities at the local level, officials said in a business conference on Friday, even as the government has called for close coordination with officials to iron out differences.

MANILA, Philippines—Eleven members of the Aquino Cabinet have signed the Integrity Pledge, effectively joining a private sector-led effort to institute control measures to help curb corruption in the country. Henry Schumacher, vice president for external affairs of the European Chamber of Commerce of the Philippines, which spearheads the Integrity Initiative along with the Makati Business…

THE PRIVATE SECTOR remains “less than healthy” and “continuing weaknesses” should be resolved if the Philippines wants to accelerate development and reduce poverty, a report published by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) said.

THE PHILIPPINES’ innovation ranking has slipped 15 spots into the bottom 30% of a recent global survey as education and science development continued to fall while governance improvements failed to keep up with faster innovating economies. The country placed 91st out of 125 surveyed economies this year, from 76th in 2010, in the latest edition…

US Ambassador Harry K. Thomas visited BusinessWorld last week and sat down with the paper’s editors and reporters for a wide-ranging discussion. Here are excerpts: Mr. Thomas: It’s great to come to BusinessWorld; you have a very unique history in the Philippines… we wanted to engage the media to talk about trafficking in human persons…

MANILA, Philippines – Some 182 governors and mayors “misused” their 20 percent development funds sourced from the Internal Revenue Allotment (IRA), Interior and Local Government Secretary Jesse Robredo said yesterday.

WHO can blame those who have given up on the pathological corruption that permeates every level of government bureaucracy? Government corruption is widespread and commonplace. It creeps into the most inconspicuous government bureau.

There is a website soliciting signatures for the cause of making foreign aid programs transparent. The website, www. makeaidtransparent.com points out that citizens, of donor as well as receiving countries, have a right to know how aid money is being spent. Citizens of donor countries are paying hard earned money as taxes to finance foreign…

MANILA, Philippines – The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) has prohibited bank executives from holding multiple positions in related microfinance non-government organizations (NGOs) or foundations to prevent abuses resulting in higher operational risks.

All five governor and six city mayors in the Caraga Region (Region XIII) have posted 100 percent compliance with the government-initiated Full Disclosure Policy (FDP) which requires them to make public the source, use and disposition of their incomes and share from Internal Revenue Allotments (IRA).

MORE big names were implicated by former Solicitor General Francisco Chavez in connection with the plunder charges he filed against former President and now Pampanga representative Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, former Foreign Affairs Secretary Alberto Romulo, former Health Secretary now Civil Service Commission(CSC) chairman Francisco Duque III and former Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) administrator Virgilio…

ON the basis that he could do with all the help he can get, Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) Secretary Jesse Robredo is seeking the help of civil society organizations to prod local government units to practice good governance and monitor their compliance to standards set by the national government.

MANILA, Philippines – The Philippines is among 20 nations “least as peace” and is still “grappling with fetters to social and economic development of its citizens.”

CIVIL society groups allied with President Benigno Aquino III are bickering over a House bill to make it official policy to tap non-government organizations to build houses for the poor and to subsidize those by imposing an extra 1-percent real property tax.

FOREIGN Affairs Secretary Albert del Rosario is President Benigno Aquino III’s richest Cabinet official and Education Secretary Armin Luistro is his poorest, their Statements of Assets, Liabilities and Net Worth show.

BAGUIO CITY ,Philippines  – The Civil Service Commission is spearheading spot checks on government agencies to further boost the drive against cheats in government.

CEBU, Philippines – A Department of Labor and Employment-7 hearing officer accused of extortion is now out on bail.

The 2011 corruption index by Political-Economic Risk Consultancy Ltd. (Hong Kong) was a red flag. Sleaze in the Philippines had worsened since 2010, among 16 Asian economies. On a scale of one to 10, with 10 as worst, the country scored 8.9 percent, poorer than the previous 8.25. The Philippines retained its third-most corrupt slot…

The effort against corruption was rated the weakest under the administration of President Aquino during the three years since 2007 that the Washington-based think tank Global Integrity held its surveys, with the Philippines receiving an overall “very weak” grade of an average 57 percent, a rating that his critics said mimicked his empty anti-graft rhetorics.

MANILA, Philippines – The Philippines was rated “very weak” in terms of governance and corruption in the 2010 Global Integrity Report released yesterday.

Corruption reduces domestic investment. It discourages foreign direct investment. It makes government spending larger than it should be. Worst, it shifts away resources that could go into more important uses for the nation.

The effect of corruption and political succession were listed among 50 potential risks facing the smooth implementation of the public-private partnership (PPP) projects, which the Aquino administration identified as a cornerstone of its economic development program, a prominent think tank said in a recent report.

SECOND OF THREE PARTS ON the first death anniversary of his mother Corazon Aquino, President Benigno Aquino 3rd called on the people to support his anti-corruption campaign. How exactly can Juan de la Cruz do that? The April 4 installment of this column suggested public-private monitoring bodies and stakeholder dialogues as mechanisms for constituent feedback,…

NOTE: As mentioned at the end of the two-part column published last Friday and Saturday, a three-part article on anti-corruption measures which ran in August, will be reprinted this week with some revisions and updates, to reiterate key steps that can be taken to reduce graft.

The Office of the US Trade Representative (USTR) said corruption, piracy, preferential tariff on various goods and restrictive laws remain barriers to trade between the US and the Philippines.