Graft-ridden agencies face deep budget cuts

ACT-CIS Rep. Eric Yap on Thursday said the House committee on appropriations would separately investigate graft-ridden state agencies and it would slash or even scrap the budgets of those that would be found dishonorable.

“We have oversight functions and as appropriations chair, we will make sure that the budget being given to [state agencies] is properly used and not in corruption,” he told reporters in an online briefing.

Yap said his committee would investigate the agencies during the two to three weeks that the Senate would be deliberating on the P4.5-trillion proposed national budget for 2021.

Funds to other agencies

He said he would propose to the Senate-House conference committee deep cuts to the budgets of corruption-ridden agencies or defund the agencies altogether and transfer their budgets to others that needed more funds.

On Tuesday, President Duterte announced that he had directed the Department of Justice (DOJ) to launch a sweeping investigation into graft across all government agencies and to concentrate on the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH), where he said earlier no project could start without money changing hands.

On Wednesday, Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra said a DOJ-led task force would do the investigation, beginning with the “usual suspects”—the DPWH, Bureau of Internal Revenue, Bureau of Customs, Land Registration Authority, and Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth).

On Thursday, Yap said his committee’s investigation would start with the revenue agencies—the internal revenue and customs bureaus—and the Department of Transportation.

Yap said his office continued to receive reports of corruption in the customs bureau, although the agency’s image had improved a bit under the current management.

“We will investigate this … because if they cannot correct this, why should we give them a budget? It would be better if we rechannel funding to agencies that need it, like the DOH (Department of Health),” he said.

He said the findings of his committee’s investigation would be submitted to the DOJ and to the Office of the Ombudsman.

If the investigation could not be completed before the Senate-House budget conference, Yap said, it would be continued next year.

Probe welcomed

Revenue Commissioner Caesar Dulay and Customs Commissioner Rey Leonardo Guerrero issued statements on Thursday welcoming the investigation.

“We will fully cooperate with the probe,” Dulay said.

Guerrero said the customs bureau was “strongly committed” to introducing reforms to get rid of corruption in the agency.

He said hundreds of employees had been investigated and dozens of charges had been filed with the Ombudsman, DOJ and the National Bureau of Investigation.

Two House committees voted to approve on Tuesday an investigation report recommending civil, criminal, and administrative charges against Health Secretary Francisco Duque III and a number of senior officials of PhilHealth over the misuse of funds that had resulted in billions of pesos in losses for the company.

On Wednesday, the Ombudsman ordered the suspension for six months of eight senior officials of PhilHealth for alleged irregularities in the release of P2.7 billion in funds for the treatment of COVID-19 patients.

The President, however, has rejected accusations against Duque and cleared Public Works Secretary Mark Villar of any suspicions, saying the son of former Senate President Manuel Villar was wealthy and did not need to steal public money.

Sacred cows

On Thursday, Bayan Muna Rep. Carlos Zarate, a House deputy minority leader, said “little or nothing” would come out of the graft investigation if Duterte would clear “his people” even before the probe could start.

“If sacred cows and patronage politics remain in the Duterte administration, then no amount of corruption drive will succeed,” Zarate said.

He also questioned the formation of a task force for the investigation when the Ombudsman is the graft buster.

“What happens [if] the Ombudsman and the DOJ reached opposite findings [in] their investigation of the same agency?” he asked. “Is Malacañang saying the Ombudsman is useless or is this anticorruption drive just for show?”

Sen. Panfilo Lacson had a similar observation, saying earlier that the investigation started on the wrong foot because there appeared to be exceptions.

Responding to the criticisms, presidential spokesperson Harry Roque said the President, a lawyer, wanted evidence of wrongdoing.

If there is proof that people close to the President were involved in irregularities, they would not be spared the consequences, Roque told a news briefing on Thursday.

“Whoever it is, no matter how close to him, no matter how he had praised him in the past, if there is evidence of his involvement in corruption, the President would punish him,” Roque said. —WITH REPORTS FROM LEILA B. SALAVERRIA AND BEN O. DE VERA