Corruption low in Angeles City, SWS survey says

The city of Angeles in Pampanga received the lowest scores in a corruption perception survey conducted by the Social Weather Stations (SWS) in seven highly urbanized cities.

The Angeles government announced the SWS findings on Sunday, two months after the polling company made public its results of the “Survey of Enterprises on Corruption.” The SWS said this year’s survey was the 10th in a series since 2000, with the last survey conducted in 2009.

This was the first time that Angeles was included in the survey, according to the study. Other areas covered by the survey were Metro Manila, Cavite-Laguna-Batangas, Metro Cebu, Metro Davao, Cagayan de Oro-Iligan and Metro Iloilo.

Representatives of at least 100 enterprises in Angeles City were interviewed, with 27 saying there is public corruption in the city. Among city governments, corruption was seen as “moderate but falling.”

Mayor Edgardo Pamintuan said the SWS results validated the six awards the city government received this year for good governance and transparency in public transactions.

“This is something that every Angeleño should be proud of,” Pamintuan said in a statement.

In a telephone interview, he said: “The results of the survey, where Angeles registered the best record, should now put to rest the baseless accusations that the business sector is complaining against my administration.”

He was referring to a statement made by Pampanga Rep. Carmelo Lazatin that he was forced to challenge Pamintuan in next year’s race because businessmen have complained of irregularities in the city government.

Sought for comment, Lazatin said the survey respondents were few. “What I want to know is where corruption really happens so I can correct that next year [should I win],” he said.

The survey tackled public sector corruption, sincerity in fighting corruption, government efforts to fight corruption, prosecution of high-profile corruption cases, enterprises solicited for a bribe, transactions with the government, private sector corruption, business efforts to fight corruption, honest business practices and business climate. Tonette Orejas, Inquirer Central Luzon