Gov’t warned investments will dry up if corruption not acted on

By Justine Irish D. Tabile, Reporter

The corruption scandal engulfing the infrastructure industry is expected to deter investments if the government does not prosecute those involved and follow up with reforms.

Danish Ambassador to the Philippines Franz-Michael Skjold Mellbin sees the corruption issue as an opportunity for the Philippines to move forward.

“Of course, everybody is waiting to see actual action on this,” he told reporters on the sidelines of the Nordic Ambassadors’ Forum 2025 on Thursday.

“I think that will send a very important signal: what is the government actually going to do to prosecute and process cases against those who are going to be indicted and who are under suspicion for having stolen and misused public funds,” he added.

He said that the government should not stop at prosecutions but also look at how it can improve existing processes to attract more investment.

“We do have some specific ideas on how to stem the tide in several areas. One of them would be to digitize more, but not just on the front end. It has to be digitization on the back end of government services,” he said.

“As long as you’re pushing paper around, that does open, unfortunately, the opportunity for individuals to mess with the process or to elicit certain favors. This is one way you can improve,” he added.

He also cited the need for the government to make regulations clearer and more objective.

“I think that there are quite a lot of opportunities, and I’m very happy that the business community now also is stepping forward trying to help the government with specific suggestions,” he said.

“One of those suggestions is to have more centralized tax assessment (for a) higher degree of professionalism and transparency in tax assessments,” he added.

Nordic Chamber of Commerce of the Philippines President Bo Lundqvist said corruption does not instill confidence among Nordic investors.

“If there is any takeaway… it is how important these matters — honesty, trust, and transparency — are to us Nordics,” he told BusinessWorld.

“From a business perspective, if you plan to make a serious (long-term) investment… you want to make sure you as a country (has) at least those ideals and those values that you bring with you,” he added.

He described as a positive development the initiation of the inquiry by the President, adding that the Congress has been diligent in its investigation, raising confidence that prosecutions will eventually succeed.

“That’s the first thing to do. Enforce, right? You cannot change the world in one day. Everyone understands that. You cannot change traditions and all that,” he added.

“If you start (demanding) accountability, where people actually get punished for wrongdoing, well, then that hopefully changes the attitude, and we can slowly get to a more transparent and honest type of government,” he added.

He said the government needs to put budgets, transactions, spending, and progress reports online.

“The transparency needs to go all the way to what was actually spent and what was actually done … I think a chain of checkpoints (is required),” he added.