Corruption in the Philippines

The Philippines is experiencing chronic and widespread corruption in its government. Corruption practices in the Philippines include graft, bribery, embezzlement, back door agreements, nepotism, patronage. This is from the previous Presidents of the Philippines to the local government units. According to the Ombudsman’s Finance and Management Information Office, a total of 3,852 cases were filed against local government officials in 2011. Of these, 633 were filed in Luzon, 600 in the Visayas and 544 in Mindanao. The Philippine National Police (PNP) is the second in a number of cases filed against it by the Ombudsman in 2011. Among the cases filed against the following government departments in 2011: Department of Education (562 cases), Philippine Information Agency ( 490 cases), Bureau of Internal Revenue (416 cases), Armed Forces of the Philippines (304 cases), Bureau of Customs (177 cases), Department of Environment and Natural Resources (155 cases), Department of Social Welfare and Development (148 case), Department of Justice (98 cases). [1] In 2012, the Philippines ranked 105th with a 3.4 CPI on Transparency International's ranking of 176 countries and territories based on how corrupt they are according to the public sector. The Philippines is home to Algeria, Armenia, Bolivia, Gambia, Kosovo, Mali, and Mexico. About 30% of the Philippine national budget is reported to be lost due to graft and corruption each year.

Types of corruption in the Philippines

The seven corruptions perpetrated in the Philippines are tax evasion, ghost projects and payroll, escape or avoiding public auction of the provision of contracts, the passage of contracts, nepotism and favoritism, extortion, money protection and bribery.

Tax Payment Escape

This is especially true in the private sector due to the refusal of private entrepreneurs to declare their annual income and pay appropriate taxes to the government.

Ghost projects and wages

This is done by senior government officials where non-existent projects are funded by the government while non-existent government personnel or pensioners are paid by wages and allowances. This corruption is rampant in government agencies involved in the formulation and implementation of programs and projects particularly in infrastructure and in the provision of wages, allowances and pension benefits.

Avoiding public auction in the provision of contracts

The departure of government offices specifically the committees of auctions and the provision of contracts by public auction or the provision of contracts to favored businesses or contractors that can provide them with personal benefits. To legally prevent public auctioning of contracts, buyer-government agencies will implement a shredded purchase strategy in which small amounts of supplies and materials will be purchased in a continuous process. In this case, agreements between the buyer and the supplier are made in which a percentage of the price value will be given to the buyer which sometimes results in overpriced and purchase of low quality supplies and materials.

Forwarding contracts from one contractor to another

In the construction of infrastructure projects, contractors are skilled at passing jobs from one contractor to another. In this process, one percent of the project cost is maintained by each contractor and subcontractor resulting in the use of low-grade materials or unfinished projects.

Nepotism and favoritism

Senior officials may place or appoint relatives and friends in government positions even if they do not qualify. This is one of the roots of the inefficiency and increase of employees in the bureaucracy.

Extortion

Government officials do this against their clients by soliciting money, valuables or services from ordinary citizens who transact with them or their office. This is especially true of agencies that issue clearances and other documents, those involved in recruiting personnel or those who perform services that directly favor ordinary citizens.

Bribe or Condition

The system of bribery or bribery that citizens are bribing or placing on government officials is due to bureaucratic red tape. Excessive paperwork, long processing of documents, ineffective and poor management of staff and lack of professionalism in public service are driving ordinary citizens to put in place for fast processing and issuance of personal document. The usual way is to offer large sums of money to a government official who can assist in issuing the desired documents to the issuing licenses, permits, clearances and agencies deciding on specific issues. . Another way of doing this is to use fixers where people pay to certain individuals who may or may not be government employees who process or obtain the necessary documents for them.