Is
The Philippine Judicial System
Effective in Fighting
Corruption?
This
research study, entitled “Is the Philippine Judicial System
Effective in Fighting Corruption?” was prepared by the Center
for People Empowerment in Governance (CenPEG) in partnership with
Transparency International (TI)-Philippines.
In
early November 2006, Transparency International (TI), in its 2006
Corruption Perception Index (CPI), rated the Philippines as among
163 countries whose ranking fell to 121 from 117 in 2005. TI also
ranked the Philippines as the third most corrupt country in the
Association of Southeast Asian (ASEAN) region next to Myanmar and
Indonesia.
Earlier
in 2004, TI’s Global Corruption Barometer (GCB) named the
judiciary as among the top institutions where the incidence of corruption
is very high in the Philippines. Likewise, topping the GCB with
the judiciary was law enforcement, another pillar of the criminal
justice system.
These
studies by TI about the incidence of corruption in the Philippines
have been disputed by the government of President Gloria M. Arroyo,
particularly its anti-corruption consultant and the Ombudsman both
of whom called the findings of TI in its GCB - as well as of the
Political and Economic Risk Consultancy, Ltd. (PERC) - as mere perceptions.
Their reactions suggested that government was doing all it can to
address the endemic problem, and that corruption had been minimized
and, hence, should not be projected internationally as a hopeless
case.
Assistant
Ombudsman Cyril Ramos also dismissed perceptions that the country’s
judicial institutions are toothless in the crusade against corruption
for failing to convict powers-that-be or, in his own words, the
“big fish”. On the contrary, he said, several municipal
and city mayors have been convicted for graft and related offenses
by the Sandiganbayan.
CenPEG
and TI thus planned this study in order to evaluate the validity
of these claims to the effect that government institutions including
the Ombudsman and Sandiganbayan, as well as other agencies have
been playing their part in the prompt and fair investigation and
judicial disposition of complaints regarding graft and corruption
and related cases. The study focuses particularly on the performance
of the Ombudsman, as a pillar of the judicial system, and the Sandiganbayan,
the anti-graft court, from 2001 to May 2006, or during the present
term of Mrs. Arroyo.
The
study also covers the performance of the media in publicizing reports
about graft and corruption in order to gauge the industry’s
adversarial role vis-à-vis government especially in checking
its excesses and abuses. Another important pillar of the judicial
system, the citizens movement or grassroots organizations, is included
in the study because of their equally crucial role in the fight
against corruption during the period.
For
copy and further information, please contact Center for People
Empowerment in Governance (CenPEG), 3F CSWCD Bldg., University
of the Philippines, Diliman, Quezon City, 1105 Philippines. Telefax:
+632-9299526
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