ROUNDTABLE DISCUSSION ON:

National Study Conference on Corruption

Rationale and Objectives

The problem of entrenched and unbridled corruption in government and in the boardrooms and mansions of the nation's elite poses a continuing burden on the Filipino people.

A legacy of colonialism, systematic corruption has persisted since the first US-installed Commonwealth government of Manuel Quezon, up to the time of Ferdinand Marcos, to the supposedly democratic governments of Corazon Aquino, Fidel Ramos, Joseph Estrada and currently, Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.

In many countries, the issue of corruption has mobilized people calling for the ouster of their governments. In the Philippines, it has caused defeat to candidates and has twice triggered a people's uprising that toppled sitting governments.

However, the depth of understanding of the problem of corruption varies widely.

For traditional politicians, corruption is a permanent fixture of politics and governance that is addressed simply by new mechanisms, new laws, and improved public image of government officials and agencies.

For the most part, ordinary people are easily agitated when someone in authority uses his or her position to get rich at other people's expense. They consider it unconscionable that a public official flaunts his/her ill-gotten wealth while the majority of people wallow in poverty, social services are neglected and development projects are put on hold.

Other lobby groups look at corruption as simply a problem of governance. Notably, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank (WB) propagate this notion that corruption flourishes due to the lack of mechanisms for transparency and accountability in the running of governments.

The better informed and politicized among the people, however, abhor corruption on moral, political and economic grounds. They see the connection between the phenomenon of corruption in public office, economic iniquities, and social injustice.

Progressive organizations and individuals look beyond organizational solutions in addressing the problem of corruption. They see corruption as systemic in a neocolonial state controlled by a domestic elite whose interest are dictated by and intertwined with those of foreign big business. They consider institutionalized corruption, patronage politics and feudal agrarian relations as inseparably linked.

A critical view is that corruption arises because the state is treated as one big business enterprise for extracting profit. It is a phenomenon inherent in a political system where the concept and practice of governance revolve around how political leaders and top bureaucrats, in collaboration with local elite and foreign interest, abuse their positions of power to amass wealth.

In order to subject the problem of corruption to a deeper analysis and resolute action, the Center for People Empowerment and Governance ((CenPEG), IBON Foundation and the Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (BAYAN) have joined together to spearhead the National Study Conference on Corruption (NSCC) with other participating organizations and networks.

By analyzing and addressing the roots of corruption in the context of the chronic economic and political crisis facing the nation today, the NSCC hopes to achieve a common understanding and framework in looking at corruption and its related issues that would help guide the various organizations in their anti-corruption work. Hence, the NSCC has the following objectives: