I Love Pinoys

By DAVID DIZON
abs-cbnNEWS.com

President Arroyo on Wednesday received failing marks for transparency in governance for blocking attempts by the Senate and various groups to ferret the truth in the ZTE-NBN contract and other allegedly irregular government deals.

Vincent Lazatin, executive director of the Transparency and Accountability Network, said that on a scale of 1 to 5 (5 meaning that the government is transparent), the Arroyo administration would rank a “1″ or even lower in terms of transparency.

“If I could give a lower grade than 1, I would give it. Transparency of government under the Arroyo administration is very poor. The attempt to muzzle government executives through Executive Order 464 and the abuse of executive privilege are just two examples of how this government is clamping down on attempts to get information about the administration,” Lazatin said during a forum by local and foreign anti-corruption groups at the Manila Hotel.

Lazatin said the unwillingness of the Arroyo administration to be investigated is feeding perceptions that it has something to hide. “Less transparency in government means more hiding places for corrupt transactions to occur. The only way to erase that perception is to become more open. If government would allow Secretary Romulo Neri to speak freely without restraint on the ZTE-NBN deal, then there wouldn’t be that perception that this government is corrupt,” he said.

He also said the lack of openness in the selection process for sensitive government posts such as the Office of the Ombudsman and the Supreme Court is increasing perception that these positions are also being politicized.

Raul Pangalangan, former dean of the University of the Philippines College of Law, said the Supreme Court’s decision upholding the executive privilege clause on Neri’s conversations with President Arroyo is a major drawback to bring transparency to government. He said that before the Supreme Court’s decision, there was much room for various groups in asserting the right to information.

Supreme Court Spokesman Jose Midas Marquez, however, said there should be a balance between transparency and state secrets.

“Well, executive privilege has always been there in the 1987 Constitution. There’s just some concern by the Executive about confidentiality and state secrets. There just needs to be a balance between transparency and state secrets,” he told abs-cbnNEWS.com.

On the Neri case, he said the Supreme Court had asked petitioners to include all questions that need clarification on executive privilege.

The Supreme Court earlier sided with government lawyers that Neri’s conversations with President Arroyo on the ZTE-NBN deal are covered by executive privilege. The three questions that the SC said were covered by executive privilege are: 1) whether the President followed up the ZTE-NBN project; 2) whether Neri was dictated by the President to prioritize the ZTE project; and 3) whether the President told Neri to go ahead and approve the project after being told about the alleged bribe.

The court has yet to rule on the Senate’s motion to the court to reconsider its decision on Neri’s case.

Lazatin said one strategy being mulled by civil society groups regarding the ZTE-NBN case is to bring all questions on executive privilege particularly on the ZTE-NBN case to the Supreme Court.

Hindrance to media

Columnist Luis Teodoro said the administration’s lack of transparency is also hindering the media’s work in the Philippines. “Transparency is crucial to media’s work. It’s becoming less about public information and more on public manipulation,” he said.

Teodoro, a deputy director of the Center for Media Freedom and Responsibility, chastised the administration for what he called “sustained attacks on the press” including libel suits filed by First Gentleman Jose Miguel Arroyo against journalists, the arrests of journalists during the November 29, 2007 Manila Peninsula standoff and the killings of mediamen in the provinces.

He said the attempts to muzzle the press resulted in a drop in the number of investigative reports produced by various media organizations in 2007. He added, however, that investigative reports picked up in the first quarter of the year after Senate witness Rodolfo Lozada testified in the Senate probe on the ZTE-NBN deal.

Transparency and corruption

Lazatin said the perception of increased corruption as a result of lack of transparency has an adverse effect on the country’s investment climate. He said the Philippines is often compared to its Asian neighbors particularly Vietnam which ranked much lower in perceived corruption as seen in the 2007 Corruption Perceptions Index of Transparency International (TI).

Based on TI’s 2007 corruption perceptions index, the Philippines ranked 131 out of 180 nations surveyed, with a 2.5 rating, along with Burundi, Honduras, Iran, Libya, Nepal and Yemen. Vietnam, on the other hand, ranked 111 in the list.

TI Asia-Pacific regional director Pascal Fabie said the Philippine government should work harder to fight corruption and improve transparency in order to attract more investors. He said investors often look at perceived corruption in a country and how it would affect their business in the long term.

“They need to see incremental progress in the governments that would create a favorable environment to thrive through time. It’s not just the snapshot picture of how it looks now but in the future and how a country will improve for business. A country should be concerned about incremental improvements to its greater transparency and less corruption and all the rest,” Fabie said.

Source

May 22nd, 2008
Categories: news . Author: johnnytalkback

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