Senator urges DPWH corruption investigators to probe more agencies

By Justine Irish D. Tabile, Reporter

THE investigation into corruption in the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) needs to be expanded to make all agencies accountable, Senator Paolo Benigno Aquino IV said.

Speaking at the 6th Management Association of the Philippines (MAP) NextGen Conference, the senator said the probe cannot stop with the DPWH.

“As we speak, many agencies are also being uncovered. I haven’t attended a business forum where people weren’t complaining about the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) and Bureau of Customs (BoC), to be honest,” he said.

“We have make sure that this push for governance at the DPWH (is widened) — we need to see this all throughout,” he added.

He said there are no current efforts within the government to look into other agencies.

“A number of business groups have come to me about these issues. I think what we need to see is after the current investigations are resolved, or while they are getting resolved, we should move to other agencies,” he said.

“Right now, nasa infrastructure tayo e, pero huwag natin sayangin ‘yong momentum na habulin talaga natin lahat (we are looking into infrastructure, but we can’t waste the momentum that has built up and let us go after everyone),” he added.

“To be fair, it was the president who started the whole flood control investigation. I am hoping that hindi natin ito pakakawalan at talagang itutuloy-tuloy natin hanggang makakita tayo ng mas maayos na pamamahala (I am hoping that we don’t let up and see things through until we achieve better governance),” he added.

MAP President Alfredo S. Panlilio said the BIR and BoC issues have been there for manyyears.

“It is systemic … so it cannot just be one portion of the government. If possible, the entire government (should be) automated. I know it is a big task, but you have to start somewhere,” he said, noting that a proof of concept is being tested for the DPWH.

“But we should do it to more (agencies),” he added.

He said the issue of corruption has affected gross domestic product, which grew 4% in the third quarter, the weakest reading in four years.

“At the end of the day, I think it is really because of confidence and credibility. And when you talk about GDP, it is way below the target … so that’s very concerning,” he said.

He said the growth levers for GDP are government spending, consumption, and investment.

“Now that the government is sort of making sure (spending) slows down, obviously, because it wants to make sure that spending is correct and goes to the right projects,” he said.

“Consumption is going to be down … and the third lever is investment, so you see a lot of these things about the stock market being weak that really stem from, again, confidence and the credibility of our country,” he added.

He said this demonstrated the need to change how the country does things.

“That takes time. We might have to feel a bit of pain. You don’t want to say let’s spend again because it’s going to affect GDP (if) the same things happen again,” he said.

“So, I think there has to be a major change in how we do things. In a way, we have lost our moral compass as a country … and I think we need to redirect ourselves to the right path,” he added.

Mr. Aquino said putting transactions and documents online will be a deterrent to corruption.

“If we’re able to put out those documents from the beginning, and we have technology that automatically tracks price fluctuations or price variances for everybody to see, I think it will be a blow against corruption,” he said.

“So we need to put in these systems. If not, babalik at babalik lang tayo sa mga ganito (we will revert to the same predicament),” he added.

He said the fraudulent projects thrive because th documentation isn’t transparent.

“With your support and with the support of the public, we’ll be able… have (the documents) out in the public, and have everybody watching at the same time how the government uses the people’s money,” he added.