Greco Belgica eyes Senate seat to battle the corrupt

By: Dennis Gutierrez - 3 years ago

Greco Belgica

MANILA, Philippines — Senatorial candidate Greco Belgica admitted that realistically it will be hard to stop Filipinos from electing officials with checkered records.

But he said that is precisely the reason he is running for a Senate seat because his main thrust is to battle the corrupt.

“Ang mga Pilipino sanay na bumoboto ng sikat kahit corrupt. Sa darating na eleksyon, maraming mananalong corrupt. That’s the truth,” said the former Presidential Anti-Corruption Commission (PACC) chairperson.

“So kailangang meron tayong panlaban sa corrupt sa gobyerno. ‘Yun po ang serbisyo na kaya kong ibigay sa gobyerno.”

Belgica said that if he gets elected, he will make sure to establish a structure required to combat corruption from the highest office down to the barangay level.

“Wala kasi tayong istraktura sa local government, wala sa barangay, walang anti corruption police. We only have the executive offices, the Ombudsman the PACC. Nandoon lang lagi sa national level,” he said.

He added that he will also allocate additional funding to provide the judiciary additional infrastructure and personnel and enable them to handle the legal workload required to go after corrupt officials.

“Can you imagine there are only 2,500 judges all over the Philippines? Kami sa PACC 20 lang ang abogado ko to oversee 2 million government employees. Papaano mapaparusahan ang mga corrupt at kriminal kung mabibinbin ang kaso at kulang ang tao?” he said. “Iyon ang pinakamahalagang elemento para maparusahan natin ang mga corrupt.”

“One office can not do it alone. We need to build structure, offices, hire people, judges, investigators and prosecutors who will really do the job.”

Belgica vowed to fulfill all that once he gets a seat in the Senate.

“Kailangan nyo ng panglaban sa corrupt, ako po iyon. That’s why President Duterte endorsed me. Gusto niyang ipagpatuloy ko ang nasimulan niya laban sa corruption,” said Belgica.