First word
OMBUDSMAN Jesus Crispin Remulla was indisputably right when he told a UN global conference on Thursday that the Philippines’ fight against corruption cannot be won through investigation and prosecution alone. He stressed that systemic and institutional reforms will matter more in changing the tone of Filipino public life and the quality of national politics and governance.
Remulla addressed the 7th Global Conference on Sustainable Development Goals 16 at the United Nations headquarters in New York. He said that anti-corruption efforts should go beyond investigating and prosecuting erring officials.
In his address, the Ombudsman said: “We cannot investigate our way out of corruption alone... If we truly want lasting change, we must also ask the more difficult questions: Why did corruption happen? Where did the system fail? And how do we make sure it does not happen again?”
He said that 209 flood control complaints are under fact-finding investigation by his office. He said the Office of the Ombudsman was working on systemic reforms to improve gaps in accountability and transparency.
“We are reviewing our internal systems. We are improving processes. We are advancing digital transformation. And we are strengthening partnerships across government and with international institutions,” he said.
Before attending the conference, Remulla said he wrote to Chief Justice Alexander Gesmundo to request inclusion of the Ombudsman in the Justice Sector Coordinating Council.
He explained why.
“The fight against corruption cannot operate in isolation. Corruption cases move through an entire justice ecosystem — from investigation, prosecution, adjudication, and ultimately, the delivery of justice. If one part of that system is weak, the entire system is affected,” he said.
He said the Ombudsman’s investigation into infrastructure projects could serve as a catalyst for institutional reform.
“Moments of challenge can become moments of reform. The goal is not simply to punish the mistakes of yesterday. The greater responsibility is to build better institutions for tomorrow,” he said.
The skeptics could say, of course, that the Ombudsman is just spreading a wide safety net for his office lest citizens begin to blame it for the widespread growth of corruption in our constitutional system. After all, the Ombudsman has been an integral part of our political system since the ratification of the 1987 Constitution. For nearly four decades, the Ombudsman has been our chief graftbuster, yet he has not busted the enemy or even scared it away. Ombudsman Remulla, however, was addressing a more complex point in his UN address. He underscored what management professors and theorists long ago identified underneath as the root of the crisis of corruption. The problem is fundamentally a problem of values. Large numbers of people, including top officials and public employees and ordinary citizens, have been turned loose from beliefs and values long held by the national community and national traditions.
In the words of John W. Gardner, management professor and statesman, “Leaders discover that the great system over which they preside requires continuous renewal. Values decay. The problems of today go unsolved while people mumble the slogans of yesterday. If regenerative forces are not at work, the end is predictable.”
The challenge is institutional, and it concerns the decay of public institutions, the entire society must address a problem of moral collapse.
This is to say that we must not look to the Ombudsman alone to stop or eradicate the menace of corruption for us, because it is the problem of the whole society and all of the government.
As President Marcos has said: “Corruption is the worst sin of all” and all of us must do part of the penance.
Goodbye, farewell and amen, Senate President Cayetano
News of the election of Sen. Sherwin Gatchalian as the new Senate president came out after midday Wednesday (too late for my Thursday deadline), so this obituary on Alan Peter Cayetano’s stint as Senate president is a trifle late in joining the jubilation.
There was noticeably more glee over Alan Peter’s ejection than cheers for Sherwin’s installation. Both were satisfactory in their own way.
Many people had a hilarious time poring over the remains of the Cayetano Senate presidency.
My former secretary and executive assistant at the Bureau of National and Foreign Information posted her countdown on Alan Peter’s holdout as:
1. Number of days as Senate President: 37 2. Number of Facebook Live posts: countless 3. Number of God and Bible references: cannot count 4. Amount of promised Ayuda — P10,000 5. Amount of Ayuda given: 0.
It will suffice to say that Alan Peter’s SP stint is the shortest in the Senate’s history. No one will probably bother to surpass it.
Sen. Panfilo Lacson calculated the cost in taxpayer’s money of Alan Peter’s intransigence and holdout as Senate president and the interregnum in the Senate’s leadership.
Lacson said the 28-day Senate leadership standoff cost taxpayers an estimated P700 million while producing “chaos” and legislative inaction.
Lacson said the Senate’s daily operating expenses were estimated at around P25 million based on the calculations of Senate President Gatchalian, who previously chaired the finance committee. The 28 days under Alan Peter Cayetano: estimated cost — P700 million.
“Output — chaos, gunfire, Bato’s escape despite ICC-issued warrant while under its ‘protective custody,’ session boycott, failed destabilization attempt, unauthorized committee hearings highlighted by one not presided nor attended by a single senator,” Lacson said in his post.
“What a waste of taxpayers’ money!” he added.
Alan Peter and his decimated minority bloc will now turn its prayers and hopes to the outcome of their petition for the Supreme Court to issue a ruling that would declare as invalid and unconstitutional the Senate takeover by the Gatchalian majority bloc on June3.
The chances that the Supreme Court will interfere with the rules and leadership question of the Senate are practically zero.
In the United States, the Supreme Court has a long-standing tradition not to interfere with the rules of the congressional chambers.
Realizing the odds against a favorable Supreme Court ruling, Sen. Joel Villanueva, once a stalwart in Cayetano’s transitory majority bloc, decided to switch sides and join the Gatchalian bloc.
Methinks only Loren Legarda and Imee Marcos will now have the gall to wistfully claim a Cayetano majority.
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