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).”
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.”
“Good governance is hard to find.”
“The
law used to perpetrate crime and to sanction impunity for crime is the misrule
of law.”
Photo courtesy of Lissa Ann Photography
ReplyDeletePhoto link: https://www.flickr.com/photos/mhincha/9367494616
Gonzalinho
JOEL VILLANUEVA AND THE POLITICS OF MEMORY
ReplyDeleteBy: Randy David - @inquirerdotnet
Philippine Daily Inquirer / 05:02 AM October 26, 2025
There is one thing the past has taught us about law and politics in our country. When politicians face criminal charges, they often seek absolution not in the courts but in elections. Thus, politics takes precedence over the law, and electoral victory becomes a substitute for accountability.
It is what happens when institutions are weak. In such a setup, politicians are treated as a different species—effectively shielded from criminal liability. Rare is the judge or the Ombudsman who could stand up to politics, impervious to influence and intimidation, and carry the law to its logical conclusion. One such rarity was former Ombudsman Conchita Carpio Morales.
True to her mandate, Morales investigated and filed plunder cases against three sitting senators: Juan Ponce Enrile, Jinggoy Estrada, and Bong Revilla. All were detained without bail and lost their seats as a result. The cases she built were so airtight that they led to convictions before the Sandiganbayan. Those found guilty had to wait until the fiercely independent lady Ombudsman retired. Only then could they obtain their release from detention.
But there was one legislator implicated in the Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) scandal who managed to elude sanctions—Sen. Joel Villanueva. A three-term congressman for Citizens’ Battle Against Corruption (Cibac) patylist group, Villanueva ran and won as senator in 2016 under the administration ticket of President Noynoy Aquino.
…When Ombudsman Morales retired in July 2018, President Duterte appointed former Supreme Court Justice Samuel Martires as Ombudsman. Sometime in 2019, Martires resolved Villanueva’s motion for reconsideration in his favor, reversing Morales’ earlier decision. This reversal, which happened almost three years after the MR was filed, acquitted Villanueva of any administrative liability, and effectively precluded the filing of criminal charges with the Sandiganbayan.
The Martires resolution was not publicly disclosed until very recently–when new Ombudsman Jesus Crispin Remulla moved to enforce the original 2016 dismissal order against Villanueva. Apparently, apart from Ombudsman Martires, only the senator knew about it. Yet he chose not to publicize his “vindication” at that time. Why?
…What is certain is that the absence of publicity worked in Villanueva’s favor. When he ran for reelection in 2022, his PDAF record was barely remembered. He won handily. In contrast, his fellow accused—Enrile, Estrada, and Revilla—faced an electorate that had not forgotten. Enrile was trounced in 2019. Estrada, repudiated in 2019, barely squeaked through in 2022. Revilla, who sought reelection in 2025, lost.
The moral seems clear: as long as voters remember, they can be trusted to reject the corrupt at the polls. If we cannot always put the corrupt and powerful in jail, then it falls upon the media—and upon all of us—to keep their cases alive in public memory. Forgetting is the soil in which impunity festers.
https://opinion.inquirer.net/186998/joel-villanueva-and-the-politics-of-memory
“Forgetting is the soil in which impunity festers.” Quotable.
Gonzalinho