OP, Ombudsman forge MOA to intensify
government's drive vs corruption
The Office of the President (OP) and the Office
of the Ombudsman (OMB) on Friday signed a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) that
aims to strengthen and rationalize government’s initiatives against corruption.
Executive Secretary Paquito Ochoa Jr. and
Ombudsman Conchita Carpio Morales signed the MOA on the implementation of the
United Nations Convention Against Corruption (UNCAC) and the Integrity
Management Program (IMP) during a simple ceremony held at the Kalayaan Hall in
the Malacanang Complex.
“In behalf of the Office of the President, we
would like to congratulate the people and organization behind this major
initiative for successfully bringing together two important offices in order to
strengthen and rationalize government initiatives against corruption to
concretize the President’s vision for a government that treads the straight
path, or Tuwid na Daan,” Ochoa said during the event.
He said the signing of the MOA is one of the
many steps the Aquino administration has taken and will continue to take, to
make good on the government’s commitment to institutionalize good governance.
For her part, Morales described the partnership
between the OP and the Ombudsman as “historic” saying that it “further exudes
inspiring hope for the Philippines to foster a culture that rejects corruption
and embraces the values of integrity, rule of law, sustainable development and
inclusive growth.”
Under the MOA, the OP and the OMB shall
constitute a Joint Technical Working Group to draft a multi-stakeholder
mechanism for implementation and review of the UNCAC as well as a Project
Management Committee (PMC) that will provide overall direction and technical
support to the agency implementers to attain a viable integrity management
program.
The Philippines is a signatory to the UNCAC as
ratified by the Philippine Senate on November 8, 2006, which stipulates State
Obligations to comply with the UN Standards in the areas of prevention,
criminalization, international cooperation, asset recovery, and technical
assistance and information exchange.
Last December 2012, the OP and the OMB jointly
conducted the National Dialogue and planning of the UNCAC that resulted in the
crafting of the 21-Point UNCAC Agenda with a multi-sectoral Declaration of the
Commitments for full institutional cooperation to serve the noble objective of
the same.
On the other hand, the Integrity Management
Program is the first joint anti-corruption program of the OP and the OMB
replacing the Integrity Development Action Plan and the Integrity Development
Review. Supported by the World Bank, this program is envisioned to be the
primary national anti-corruption prevention framework of the government.
The IMP further aims to achieve outputs such as
delivery of capacity building interventions on integrity management for
implementing agencies; provision of technical assistance to agencies; establishment
of a monitoring and evaluation system for the IMP; institutionalization of
rewards and incentives system; and implementation of integrity management
advocacy strategies.
It likewise focuses on the formulation of
integrity policies; development of integrity management plans; mobilization of
integrity management committees; and implementation of integrity management
instruments.
Through these outputs, the Integrity Management
Program is expected to produce outcomes including agencies that are less
vulnerable to corruption; more transparent, accountable, and participatory
governance; reduction of level of corruption and practice of integrity in the
public sector.
The MOA shall take effect 15 days after the
signing by the parties.
The MOA signing was also attended by Social
Welfare Secretary Dinky Soliman, representatives from the World Bank, United
Nations Development Programme, and other development partners, civil society
and business groups and other oversight agencies on anti-corruption and officials
of the OP and OMB. PND (ib)
Govt, Bantay Kita form tie up to advance
transparency, accountability in extractive industries
The Philippine government and Bantay Kita, a
nongovernment organization, signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) Friday
formalizing their tie ups to carry out activities aimed at ensuring
transparency and accountability in the country’s extractive industries.
Secretary Elisea Gozun, the Presidential Adviser
on Climate Change, signed for the Philippine government and Dr. Cielo Magno,
the national coordinator of Bantay Kita, represented the NGO.
The British government and Bantay Kita also
separately signed an agreement extending P11.2 million grant to the NGO to be
used in carrying out different programs and activities in the mining and
exploration sectors. The money comes from the British Government’s Prosperity
Program.
The Philippine and British governments as well
as Bantay Kita have been working together to push the Philippine agenda on
strengthening transparency and accountability in the local extractive
industries.
The initiative is expected to help the country
fulfill its thrust as a candidate country to the Extractive Industries
Transparency Initiative (EITI) by working together with Bantay Kita, a civil
society representative in the PH-EITI multi-stakeholder group, with support
from the British government.
EITI aims to strengthen governance by improving
transparency and accountability in extractive industries.
Among the projects is to develop the first
Philippine EITI report, required for each candidate country, demonstrating
compliance with globally developed standards that promote revenue transparency
at the local level.
It will also push for legislation
institutionalizing EITI in the Philippines within the 16th Congress. The
project will also mobilize civil society, industry players and local
governments to work on the implementation of EITI in the national and
sub-national level.
Gozun thanked the British government for its
support in institutionalizing and facilitating EITI implementation in the
Philippines.
The money will be used to assist activities in
the sub-national implementation of EITI and capacity building of different
stakeholders needed to implement EITI in the country. This is in line with
President Aquino’s “daang matuwid” commitment to the people to promote good
governance and fight corruption.
Joining EITI will benefit the country
economically because it will improve the Philippine investment climate by
providing clear signals to investor and global financial institutions about the
government’s increased accountability and transparency.
Companies and investors also benefit from it as
EITI membership mitigates risks to businesses as more transparent governance
reduces political instability. Being in EITI also makes information available
to the public, which in turn helps civil society effectively monitor payments
made by businesses as well as track revenues remitted to the government.
President Aquino recently announced his
administration’s commitment to join EITI through Executive Order No. 79 on
Institutionalizing and Implementing Reforms in the Philippine Mining Sector.
The Philippines was accepted as an EITI
candidate country at the EITI’s global meeting in Sydney, Australia, on May 22
this year.
EITI is an international multi-stakeholder
initiative that seeks to establish a global standard for transparency in the
revenues collected by governments from extractive industries such as mining and
oil.
It was launched by former British Prime Minister
Tony Blair in 2002 at the World Summit for Sustainable Development.
The first EITI international board was
established in October 2006. Currently, there are 37 countries participating in
the EITI, 20 of which are already compliant. PND (as)
Palace says economic fundamentals remain very
strong despite stock market movement
Malacanang said it is not worried about the
recent drop in the stock market saying the dramatic developments were due to
external factors that has not affected the country’s economic fundamentals.
In a press briefing in Malacanang on Friday,
Secretary Ramon Carandang of the Presidential Communications Development and
Strategic Planning Office (PCDSPO), said the indiscriminate sell-off of stocks
by global fund managers in Asia and Europe is triggered by concerns that
Central Banks around the world will taper off on the easy monetary policy.
Carandang said it means fund managers are
worried that interest rates will go up prompting them to sell their stocks.
“They’re guessing, they speculated to some
extent and that has led them to sell stocks around the world, including the
Philippines,” he said.
Others said that fund managers have certain
allocations for stocks and bonds.
“For example, 50 percent for stocks, 50 percent
for bonds. If your stocks go up, and your bonds go down, your 50-50 starts
becoming 60-40 and you have to start unloading in order to rebalance your
portfolio,” Carandang explained.
“So for those reasons, rather technical reasons,
people began to sell stocks around the world, including the Philippines.”
But the Palace official assured that whatever
the ongoing developments in the stock market, these have not impacted on the
country’s economy as a whole.
“Speculations on rising interest rates isn’t
much of a concerns about what the Central Bank will do, but it concerns about
what the United States Federal Reserve will do, and to some extent, what the
European Central Bank will do, he said.
“If the Federal and European Central Bank raise
interest rates, that will create pressure on smaller central banks like ours to
do the same, and that’s what stock markets are worried about right now,” he
said.
The Monetary Board had a meeting Thursday but it
didn’t signal either way so it’s really mostly of external factors, the Palace
official said. PND (as)
Govt already implementing master plan to address
Metro flooding
The master plan on flood control for Metro
Manila is underway, a Palace official said, asking the public for patience
because the plan may take some time to be felt.
Secretary Ramon Carandang of the Presidential
Communications Development and Strategic Planning Office, said he has just
discussed the flood control master plan with Public Works and Highways
Secretary Rogelio Singson, who said the flood control is already underway.
But the public has to be patient since seeing
the outcome of the master plan takes several years to implement, and it is also
a matter of inter-agency implementation.
“There are responsibilities that belong to MMDA,
DPWH, DILG, and they’re all doing their part and one of the components of that
is the cleaning of the esteros. That’s happening already,” he said.
While the clean up drive is ongoing, the DPWH
creates containment basins, and both initiatives are happening simultaneously,
Carandang said adding the results can’t be seen overnight.
“The work, as we announced last year, will take
a few years to complete and you will see the improvement, vast improvements,
only in a few years. But the public can rest assured na patuloy ‘yung flood
control program.”
The DPWH, DILG, and MMDA have been working
together to carry out the plan, he said noting there are some improvements
already. Should those agencies have not acted, the flooding might have been
worse in Metro Manila, he said.
For her part, Deputy Presidential Spokesperson
Abigail Valte said the MMDA continues to clean up esteros in preparation for
the rainy season. PND (as)
Palace: PAGASA has enough forecasters
Malacanang assured Friday that the country has
enough forecasters to monitor the weather condition as the rainy season
approaches.
Asked if the government remains confident about
the number of forecasters working at the Department of Science and Technology
(DOST) or the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services
Administration (PAGASA), Deputy Presidential Spokesperson Abigail Valte said in
a press briefing in Malacanang on Friday that the government recently hired new
forecasters.
“Confident naman tayo doon sa mga kakayahan ng
mga forecasters natin. We, in the government, have always said that our
forecasters can stand up to the test at nakikita naman natin ‘yan kapag
nagkakaroon ng kalamidad, nagkakaroon tayo ng unos, nandyan naman lagi ang mga
PAGASA forecasters. They bear the brunt of the stress whenever there is any
calamity that we go through,” Valte said.
With regards to comments saying Filipino
forecasters leave the country because they are not getting the respect they
want from the government, Valte said there is no single factor that compels
people to migrate. But she said the general rule is: people move to other
countries to find greener pastures and provide better lives to their families.
Discussing the allowances being given to the
forecasters, Valte said the government was able to address the monetary
concerns of PAGASA employees.
The forecasters’ subsistence and laundry
allowances (SALA) issue was already resolved according to the DOST and the
Department of Budget and Management (DBM), she said.
The SALA has not been deducted from the savings
as of the 2013 General Appropriations Act, she said.
“May item na ‘yun doon at ngayon, what is under
review is the hazard pay at ‘yung longevity pay nila. And we hope to see some
resolution to that this year,” Valte said. PND (as)
