Next leader urged to end corruption, push FOI
IN view of the country’s score decline in the recently released 2021 Corruption Perception Index (CPI), Deputy Speaker Eduardo “Bro. Eddie” Villanueva has urged Filipinos to vote the next leader who will undoubtedly make anti-corruption as defining platform and who will certify as urgent the enactment of the long overdue Freedom of Information (FoI) bill.
“The country’s drop in score in the 2021 CPI is an indisputable proof of two things: that even a cruel COVID-19 pandemic does not diminish the greed and callousness in the hearts of corrupt officials and that all rhetoric of the government in curbing corruption is a failure – corruption is still pervasive and worsening,” said the representative of the Citizen’s Battle Against Corruption (CIBAC).
With a score of 33 in a scale where 100 means a country is perceived clean while 0 is seen as highly corrupt – the Philippines ranked 117th out of 180 countries included in the 2021 CPI conducted by international watchdog Transparency International.
This standing is a point lower and two notches drop than year 2020’s score and ranking – which is 34 and 115th, respectively.
The Philippines’s score for the 2021 CPI is below the average score of Asia-Pacific countries, which is 45.
In addition, such country’s score is the lowest since 2012.
The CPI is considered as the international barometer of corruption across countries as it is the most prominent and widely-used scoring metric to measure how corrupt a country’s public sector is, based on experts and business people.
“Corruption is anti-jobs, anti-health and anti-poor because it steals government funds intended to provide Filipinos with employment, ayuda, and protection from COVID-19. The next President must be someone who puts anti-corruption a centerpiece of the coming administration. I, therefore, call on all my fellow Filipinos to carefully discern and only vote for the candidate who has convincing proof of ability and track record to fight corruption. Otherwise, we will just again spend the next 6 years with dampened economic growth, worsening poverty and widespread injustices,” Villanueva said.
