A House of Representatives official representing the anti-corruption partylist CIBAC lamented on Friday the country’s dismal rating in the recently released 2020 Corruption Perception Index that was taken while the whole nation grappled with the adverse economic and public health effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Deputy Speaker Bro. Eddie Villanueva, together with fellow CIBAC Partylist Rep. Domingo Rivera, disclosed that the Philippines remained below the 2020 Asia Pacific average score of 45 when it registered a low 34 which is a retention of the same number in 2019.
However, Villanueva and Rivera said the rating given by the global watchdog Transparency International ranked Philippines two rungs below its 2019 level.
The country is now lodged at 115th place out of the 180 countries included in the study.
The two lawmakers said the CPI scores countries and territories by their perceived levels of public sector corruption using a scale of zero to 100, with zero as “highly corrupt” and 100 as “very clean.”
“Despite the government’s strong pronouncements on curbing it and the high-profile exposes and investigations we have seen, the CPI report simply shows that it is business as usual for corrupt government officials and employees in the government,” noted Villanueva.
He added: “What is more worrying and disturbing is that the CPI 2020 report was done during the height of pandemic and community quarantines last year.”
This is an indication that “corruption in the country chooses no season nor consideration,” the House official stated.
“It’s high time for the government to take genuine even drastic reforms to address this issue,” said Villanueva, who heads the Good Governance and Moral Uprightness cluster in the Lower Huuse.
He urged President Duterte, who has been in the forefront of the anti-graft efforts of government, to certify as urgent the Freedom of Information (FOI) bill.
“This will make our citizenry an informed and educated people which we all believe is the most effective antidote to corruption in the government,” Villanueva explained.
For his part, CIBAC solon Domeng Rivera said that it is very crucial that the government arrest the problem of unabated corruption particularly in this time of pandemic.
“The 2020 CPI report reflects that corruption is a real and ever-present problem which can make the COVID-19 pandemic efforts of the government short of attaining its desired results,” said Rivera, in a statement.