THE Philippines’ recent ranking as number one in Asia in terms of budget transparency undeniably refutes claims by critics that the Duterte administration is a despotic regime, an administration lawmaker said on Friday.
“This will be a bitter pill for administration critics to swallow, but the survey ranking is proof that President Duterte is a champion of transparency. His actions and policies are consistent with this fact,” House appropriations committee and Davao City Rep. Karlo Nograles said.
The Open Budget Survey 2017 noted that the Philippines garnered transparency or open budget index score of 67/100, placing it in top spot of the category in Asia and 19th worldwide.
The score is way above the global average of 42.
The survey is held every two years, meaning it has covered the majority of President Rodrigo Duterte’s tenure so far.
“How can you have a dictator for a president while his government is also considered as one of the world’s most transparent? The country’s sound fiscal and budget policies emanate from the Office of the President, and is only put into practice by the Department of Budget and Management and of course the House of Representatives which possess the power of the purse,” Nograles said.
Duterte took oath on June 30, 2016 following his landslide victory in the elections that same year.
Just 23 days after his inauguration, President Duterte gave transparency in government a boost by signing Executive Order 2, also known as the Freedom of Information Order.
In a related development:
• The non-profit World Justice Project Rule of Law Index showed the Philippines was the “biggest mover” in the WJP’s Rule of Law Index 2017-2018, released on Wednesday, which measures 113 countries’ adherence to the rule of law.
Since the WJP Rule of Law Index in October 2016, the Philippines dropped 18 positions to rank 88th out of 113 countries.
It ranks 13th out of 15 countries in East Asia and the Pacific, which includes its Southeast Asian neighbors as well as New Zealand, Australia, Japan, Hong Kong, the Republic of Korea, Mongolia, and China.
WJP calls itself “an independent, multidisciplinary organization working to advance the rule of law worldwide.”
To get the results, it conducted over 110,000 household and 3,000 expert surveys.
It looked at the countries’ performance across eight factors:
The directive marked the first FOI law in the Philippines covering all government offices under the Executive Branch.
“What the previous presidents failed to do in their six-year terms, President Duterte did in less than a month. The FOI directive is conveniently being forgotten by administration attackers but they are among those who benefit from it,” the Davao lawmakr said.
Although the House is under the Legislative Branch of government, Nograles said the House under Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez has made a conscious effort to also adopt the pro-transparency move.
The Philippines’ budget transparency score for last year was three points higher compared to the 2015 edition of the OBS survey (64/100).
The OBS 2017 survey also gave good scores to the country in terms of public participation in the budget process (41/100) as well as oversight (65/100).
Nograles said the scores in these two categories speak highly of how the House has been carrying out its mandate of crating the budget and ensuring that it is utilized properly.
“Under the Duterte administration, the House, together with the Commission on Audit, has made it a mission not to waste even a single centavo of taxpayers’ money. Every single centavo is there in the budget book for everyone to see,” Nograles said.
“To say that we enjoy all of these under a dictator makes no sense at all,” he added.
