Lacson vows corruption crackdown in first 100 days

FILE PHOTO: Presidential candidate Panfilo Lacson. Photo from Lacson’s office

MANILA, Philippines — If he wins in May, presidential candidate Sen. Panfilo Lacson said he would deploy undercover agents to catch mulcting government officials in a “massive” crackdown on corruption within his first 100 days in office.

“In the bureaucracy, we can field operatives who pretend to be applicants, to catch mulcting employees. The corrupt employees will soon be on their toes because they don’t know if the applicant they are extorting from is a secret operative,” Lacson said in a radio interview.

Lacson said such a drastic measure would help curb the “serious” problem of corruption, which, he said, was responsible for the loss of more than P700 billion in public funds yearly.

“It will be better to adopt a drastic approach to remove the [inept, corrupt, and incompetent] from the bureaucracy,” he said.

“I believe that if the judiciary and legislature see that the executive branch is working properly after having rid of corruption among its personnel, they will follow suit. That is human nature,” he said.

If elected, Lacson vowed to sign a waiver and open his bank records supposedly to “set the tone” on a policy of government transparency as he undertakes an internal cleansing of the bureaucracy.

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