The Philippines—World Capital of Impunity

THE PHILIPPINES—WORLD CAPITAL OF IMPUNITY

PHILIPPINES WORST IN IMPUNITY IN GLOBAL INDEX

Rappler.com

Published 5:25 PM, September 21, 2017

Updated 3:32 PM, September 24, 2017

MANILA, Philippines (UPDATED) – The Philippines is seen as the worst in terms of impunity among 69 countries, according to the latest Global Impunity Index (GII) of the University of the Americas Puebla (UDLAP) and the Center of Studies on Impunity and Justice (CESIJ).

Not to be confused with the impunity index of the Committee to Protect Journalists, which is specific to the journalism profession, the GII tries “to make visible, in quantitative terms, the impunity worldwide and its direct effect in other global issues such as inequality, corruption, and violence.”

The 2017 GII, released in August, cited data gathered from 2012 to 2014, studying 69 countries.

124 other countries that are Member States of the United Nations not part of the index due to a “lack of sufficient information on security and justice to compare them with other countries included in the Index.”

The 2017 GII used the average value of data from 2012 to 2014. If there was only information for one of those 3 years, it would use that. In certain cases, such as its information from Venezuela, the data corresponds to more recent periods – namely, data used is from the period 2015-2016 – but may not sufficiently reflect current events.

It added that the 2015 GII and the 2017 GII are not comparable statistically due to methodological adjustments, the inclusion of additional countries, and the variations in the human rights indicator.

While the GII does use averaged data from 2012 to 2014 in its 2017 edition, the GII recommends it be seen as a “resource to identify impunity levels amongst the countries, analyze variations in each case and remark structural and functional conditions in the countries whose impunity index changes or stays in the same levels for both periods.”

In 2015, information was available to analyze 59 countries. The GII-2017, meanwhile, covered 69 countries. While 16 new countries were added to the Index, the following 6 cases were excluded due to the countries’ failure to report statistical information to the UNODC: Andorra, Bahamas, Cyprus, Guyana, Jamaica, and Malta.

In its description of the Philippines, the GII said the high impunity index is indicative of the country “going through one of its most critical moments, due to the increase of violence related with organized crime and increased terrorist activities from local gangs linked to the Islamic State (ISIS).”

Link: https://www.rappler.com/nation/182915-global-impunity-index-2017-philippines-ranking

WHY DOESN’T IT IMPROVE?

By: Peter Wallace - @inquirerdotnet

Philippine Daily Inquirer / 05:24 AM August 30, 2018

Corruption—it’s still alive and well. Transparency International (a recognized, independent expert on the subject) ranked the Philippines 111th out of 176 countries in 2017, down 10 spots from 101st in 2016. But the Philippines’ actual score of 34 was almost unchanged from 35 in 2016.

…No big-time official has gone to jail through a final court decision. In fact, there’s almost nobody of wealth or influence who’s in jail. And until there is corruption, the big stuff—which is what matters—will flourish. Forget the small stuff, that’s simply annoying and would be nice if it were gone. But it’s the hundreds of millions and the billions of pesos that get stolen with impunity that is dragging the country down, and that remains unresolved.

The message is clear: If you’re going to steal, steal big. That has to be changed. But it won’t happen, until some really big fish are clapped in a crowded jail for life.

In his last State of the Nation Address, Mr. Duterte stressed that he would not tolerate corruption, and blamed it for the slow construction of public projects and ineffective implementation of social service programs. He has fired friends and political supporters linked to corruption, and vowed he would continue to. But his message would have been stronger if those terminated were taken to court, charged and convicted.

If he pushed harder for the approval of the Freedom of Information (FOI) Act, it could help, too. The law could play a central role in his anticorruption drive. But, instead, it’s gathering dust in both chambers of Congress. There is an executive order directing government agencies to be more transparent, but it needs a law to be more effective.

The approval of the FOI law, and actually putting people in jail, could provide a major boost to the country’s global anticorruption ranking. An effective anticorruption drive is among the key prerequisites in attracting more foreign direct investments, which will then help make economic growth more inclusive. But the Department of Justice and the Office of the Ombudsman have to be more ruthlessly effective than they are.

Empowering the press and convincing the public to report corruption could also help. But no one is going to report wrongdoing when impunity dominates, and when those who do are threatened with retribution by powerful people. Also, it’s not in Philippine culture to report wrongs, anyway. So, even though we’re convinced the President himself is not corrupt (despite the absurdities of Senator Trillanes) and has fired some officials for suspected corruption, any serious reduction has not been achieved.

And there won’t be, until some major corrupt officials are found guilty and put in an ordinary, overcrowded jail (400 prisoners in a cell designed for 100 people) with all the small, forgotten souls. Not in a special, well-supplied and ventilated room, because they end up corrupting as well the poorly paid jail officials. Fear of a life of hell in jail has to dominate the minds of the crooks in public office. 

Read more: https://opinion.inquirer.net/115717/why-doesnt-it-improve#ixzz5PnW5QwSE

“Good governance is hard to find.”

“The law used to perpetrate crime and to sanction impunity for crime is the misrule of law.”

Link: https://poetryofgonzalinhodacosta.blogspot.com/2018/07/politics.html