Download Corruption in the Philippines: A Persistent Problem with Recent Developments and more Essays (high school) History in PDF only on Docsity! CORRUPTION IN THE PHILIPPINES I. FACTS A. Brief Significant Background of Corruption in the Philippines Jeffrey Hays (2015) defined corruption as dishonest or fraudulent conduct by those in power, typically involving bribery .Corruption is a serious problem in the Philippines. It pervades public life, keeping tax revenues low and hurting efforts to alleviate poverty. Charges of corruption, graft, and cronyism are common among government officials at all levels. These problems are so entrenched that Filipinos have come to accept cronyism and the diversion of a small percentage of funds as natural. A survey released in 2010 showed ranked the Philippines as the fourth most corrupt of 16 major Asia-Pacific investment destinations. The Philippines scored 8.06 in the 2010 survey, indicating that--against its neighbours in the region--it swung from worst to bad (abs-cbnews.com, Reuters, AFP, March 9, 2010). According to business-anti-corruption.com (2015), corruption is said to take place at all levels of the government, but it is more rampant among high-level civil servants. For businesses, it is important to note that the country's complex, sometimes contradictory regulatory regime leaves room for corrupt civil servants to attempt to extract bribes. Several surveys have also shown that companies generally have little confidence in the Philippine judicial system. The main reasons include the allegedly incompetent court personnel, corruption and long delays of court cases. There is a lack of transparency in the Philippines' public procurement, and bribes are often demanded from companies wishing to win government contracts, as shown by the Survey of Enterprises on Corruption 2014. Another sector in which companies are particularly vulnerable is obtaining licenses and permits; the Survey of Enterprises on Corruption 2014 shows that the most common type of private sector corruption was bribing local government officials in return for licenses and permits in 2012 and 2013. B. Current Events and Data BINAY FATHER, SON CHARGED ANEW WITH GRAFT, FALSIFICATION Former Vice President Jejomar “Jojo” Binay and his son, dismissed Makati City Mayor Jejomar Erwin “Junjun” Binay, were charged on Friday with graft and falsification in connection with the procurement of the P1.3-billion Makati Science High School building. Ombudsman prosecutors filed four counts of violation of the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act and three counts of falsification against the Binays in the Sandiganbayan. The charges against the Binays are bailable. But if convicted, they face penalties of six to 10 years imprisonment for each count of graft and six to eight years for each count of falsification. Records showed that Makati City officials allegedly forged documents to make it appear there were other bidders who competed for the separate engineering and construction contracts awarded to Infiniti Architectural Works and Hilmarc’s Construction Corp. (Inquirer.net, March 2018) C. Documentation Former Vice President Jejomar Binay and his son, former Makati Mayor Junjun Binay. (2018) http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/974149
