NEARLY half of Filipinos perceived the Armed Forces as the most corrupt among government institutions, with the National Police and the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) a distant second and third, respectively, the results of the latest Pulse Asia, Inc. survey show.
The results of the survey conducted on March 11 also show that the Department of Social Welfare and Development, closely followed by the Department of Health and the Department of Education, are seen by the public as least corrupt among government agencies.
“Amid the controversies being faced by the Armed Forces arising from the allegations of a former military budget officer, Lt. Col. [George] Rabusa and former auditor [Heidi] Mendoza of the Commission on Audit, 48.9 percent of Filipinos name the Armed Forces as the most corrupt government agency—up from only 8.1 percent in February 2009,” Ana Maria Tabunda, Pulse chief research fellow, said in a press statement.
Tabunda said 26.6 percent of Filipinos consider the National Police as the second most corrupt, followed by the DPWH with 18.2 percent.
Secretary Ramon Carandang of the Presidential Communications Development and Strategic Planning Office said in an interview with reporters the improvement in the corruption ranking of the DPWH, which used to hold the top spot, could be credited to the leadership of Secretary Rogelio Singson.
In the last survey conducted in February 2009, 32 percent of Filipinos believed that that DPWH was the most corrupt agency, but by March this year, the figure dropped by 13.8 percentage points to 18.2 percent.
“Before, it was said that the most corrupt government agency is the DPWH. But the people began to look up to the DPWH and it is no longer considered as the most corrupt. I think we have to give credit to Secretary Singson for the reforms that he’s undertaking in the DPWH,” Carandang said.
Legislative inquiry
AS for the Armed Forces, he said its perception as the most corrupt agency is due to the legislative inquiry on alleged corruption in the military, an offshoot of the probe on the supposed plea-bargaining deal with former military comptroller Carlos Garcia.
“The people will see that we are doing something as far as procurement reform is concerned there. We would understand why the public would think that because it was in the headlines but we do not want to condemn the entire military because of a few very bad eggs there,” Carandang said.
Tabunda said the top government agencies considered as least corrupt by Filipinos are the DSWD (10.5 percent), DOH (9.2 percent) and DepEd (9. percent) though “fewer Filipinos now consider the DepEd as the least corrupt government agency than in February 2009 [9 percent against 20 percent].”
Tabunda said that while “16 percent of Filipinos do not identify any government agency as most corrupt... a sizable majority of Filipinos [64 percent] does not name any agency as least corrupt—higher than the February 2009 figure [33 percent].”
Carandang said the Aquino administration hopes that these figures would improve later on.
The survey results also showed that 60 percent of Filipinos prefer the continued congressional hearings on alleged corruption in the military, while 33 percent of Filipinos “think the matter is best left to the courts while... 7 percent holds the view that it is best to leave the matter alone since nothing will come out of any congressional investigation or court case anyway.”
The survey results also showed that nearly half of Filipinos, or 47 percent, find to be “equally not believable” the six personalities involved in the issue of military corruption, but of these six, former state auditor Heidi Mendoza is regarded as the most credible.
Aside from Mendoza, the others included in the poll are Rabusa, Garcia, former military comptroller retired Lt. Gen. Jacinto Ligot, former Armed Forces chief of staff Diomedio Villanueva and former chief of staff retired Gen. Roy Cimatu.
“Of the six personalities included in this investigation, 22 percent identify Mendoza as being more credible than the others, while 19 percent say the same thing of Rabusa,” Tabunda said.
The survey results also showed that 81 percent of Filipinos are aware of the alleged corruption in the military, partly owing to the extensive media coverage of the issue.
The survey was conducted on 1,200 respondents from February 24 to March 6.
Military implements reforms
THE results of the Pulse Asia survey showing the Armed Forces as the most corrupt government agency should prod the military to institute more meaningful reforms in the areas of financial management and procurement, Gen. Eduardo Oban, Armed Forces chief of staff, said on Monday.
“We would like to look at this more of a challenge, a motivation for the entire institution to have an aggressive step toward reforming the Armed Forces,” he said.
Oban said the perception against the military may have been buoyed by the testimony of retired Rabusa before the Senate, wherein he claimed that some former chiefs of staff misused or pocketed hundreds of millions of military funds.
“Considering the [Senate] blue-ribbon committee hearings that have been ongoing… it would seem that the perception of the public is that the Armed Forces is corrupt,” he said.
Oban said the military has taken its reform initiatives since the middle of 2000, and this is still continuing especially in the areas of personnel down to the various offices.
He said that with the perception, they need to enlighten the public more on what they have done and were doing.
Oban said he had given more teeth to the Armed Force’s institutional mechanisms like the internal audit, provost marshal, and inspector general in order to guard against corruption and ensure that all of the reform measures will be instituted.
He said he was also revisiting all corruption cases in order to put a closure on them.
