Secretary Panfilo Lacson. KRISTINE SABILLO/INQUIRER.net FILE PHOTO
BAGUIO CITY—Former Sen. Panfilo Lacson announced his intention to run again for president on Friday, and one of his first administration plans is to build a jailhouse on an island for corrupt government officials.
Lacson, who had styled himself as a graft-buster in previous electoral campaigns, said President Aquino has fulfilled half of the task to curb corruption in government, but rooting out graft must be pursued to its logical end to “turn around this country.”
Lacson said his plan includes developing a strong antigraft body, equivalent to the Independent Commission Against Corruption (Icac) in Hong Kong and the Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau of Singapore.
He said Malacañang had scrapped a plan to create its own task force to fight graft, which the Office of the Ombudsman had appreciated because this would have become their law enforcement unit.
He said the root of the country’s problem is governance and weeding out corrupt employees is a more efficient task than changing the behavior of the people.
Once efficiency and ethical behavior becomes a standard again in civil service, the rest of the country will heed the change, he said.
A former chief of the Philippine National Police, Lacson said he followed this management principle when he reformed the police force.
This task would need a much bigger jail, Lacson said, which he proposed to build in an island like Corregidor.
“Let’s fill it up until the island sinks,” he said, going along with a joke shared by reporters.
But he said he was serious about island jails dedicated to convicted government officials and employees.
Lacson said three senators have been detained for plunder, opening up a discussion as to where they should be held. Other officials ended up being granted provisional detention in hospitals.
An island, complete with medical facilities, would solve this problem in the long run, if “graft-busting” is accelerated in the country.
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