Gov’t told to go slow on grassroots budget system for LGUs

DAVAO CITY—The government should first address the reports of corruption in local government units (LGUs) before entrusting to them billions of pesos in pork funds under the Grassroots Participatory Budget (GPB) system.

In separate statements, Dante Jimenez, chair of Volunteers Against Crime and Corruption, and Renato Reyes, chair of the militant group Bagong Alyansang Makabayan, said it was public knowledge that corruption in LGUs was prevalent and systemic.

Jimenez said the Social Weather Station (SWS) 2012 survey on local governance indicated that as of October 2012, more Filipinos (68 percent of those surveyed) perceived city and municipal governments to be more corrupt than in previous years.

According to the report, the top three LGU offices perceived to be corrupt were the budget office (48 percent), mayor’s office (32 percent) and the engineer’s office (30 percent). These are the same offices considered most corrupt last year.

The levels of government that were perceived to be corrupt that year were provincial (52 percent in 2009, 59 percent in 2011, 47 percent in 2012) and village (37 percent in 2009, 38 percent in 2011, 37 percent in 2012).

The Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) said these perceptions could be attributed to the LGUs’ function of issuing business and other permits.

Jimenez said corruption among LGUs was also expected to worsen because “there are no other forms of pork they can avail themselves of.”

Reyes said the GPB might be used by local politicians to further political patronage, which would eventually benefit administration candidates in the 2016 elections. Allan Nawal, Inquirer Mindanao