Citizens Battle Against Corruption party-list Representatives Eddie Villanueva and Domingo Rivera are urging the government to go back to the drawing board aimed to introduce genuine and drastic reforms on its campaign against corruption and red tape.
They issued the statement after the Philippines’ seeming deteriorating ranking in the recently released 2020 Corruption Perception Index by the global watchdog Transparency International.
“It’s high time for the government to take genuine even drastic reforms to address this issue,” Villanueva said “It must be a strong signal to the government that it needs to go back to the drawing board to examine its anti-corruption efforts, either they are not performing enough or we’re missing the right solutions to the problem,” he added.
He said what is more worrying and disturbing is that the CPI 2020 report was done amid the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic and community quarantine.
“We call on the certification as urgent of the Freedom of Information bill which CIBAC has been championing ever since because an FOI law will certainly institute the culture of openness, transparency and accountability in the government. This will make our citizenry an informed and educated people which we all believe is the most effective antidote to corruption in the government,” he urged. On the other hand, Rivera said it is very crucial that the government would address the problem of unabated corruption, particularly in this time of pandemic when almost all is counting on the government’s help as Filipinos grapple for survival.
“The 2020 CPI report reflects that corruption is a real and ever-present problem which can make the COVID-19 pandemic efforts of the government short of attaining its desired results. It is apparent that there is always a great chance that government resources cannot be translated into meaningful and essential services hence depriving our citizens with the rightful public goods that they deserve. We thus call on our people to always be vigilant and be at the forefront of the fight against corruption,” Rivera pointed out,” he said.