BY IRMA ISIP

THE Coalition against Corruption (CAC) yesterday said it will put up a fund for whistleblowers to strengthen its campaign against corruption in government.

In a press conference, CAC chairman Jose Cuisia Jr. also reiterated the group’s call for the resignation of Ombudsman Merceditas Gutierrez for failing to act on a World Bank report on collusion among construction firms in bidding for WB-funded road projects.

Gutierrez has not done her job as a graft-buster, Cuisia said.

CAC is an anti-corruption alliance of business, civil society organizations, and the Church. Its members include the Makati Business Club (MBC), Bishops-Businessmen’s Conference for Human Development, Ateneo School of Government, Caucus of Development NGO Networks, Barug Pilipino, Integrated Bar of the Philippines, National Citizens’ Movement for Free Elections, Transparency and Accountability Network, and the National Secretariat for Social Action, Justice and Peace of the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines.

Alberto Lim, MBC executive director, said the fund for whistleblowers aims to encourage more people to come out and expose corruption in government.

He clarified, however, that the facility would not be a "reward" but financial assistance to the whistleblower or his family.

More often than not, whistleblowers are ostracized after exposing public officials and at times, the accuser becomes the accused, he said.

"When they blow the whistle, they are faced with difficulties and cannot take care of their families. The fund sends a signal that there is help out there," Lim said.

The fund will be pooled from donations from anonymous donors. Already, private citizens have pledged to support the fund, he said.

Lim said individuals have volunteered to help particular witnesses, including Maj. Ferdinand Marcelino, chief of the Special Enforcement Service of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency, who revealed an attempt to bribe him with P3 million in exchange for dropping the drug charges against the so-called Alabang Boys, and NBN-ZTE witness Rodolfo Lozada Jr., who was helped by the religious.

The CAC proposes that the fund be managed by the MBC. A subcommittee or a steering committee of the CAC will make the decisions.

There will be two kinds of donation, one for particular whistleblowers, and another for all whistleblowers.

Lim said the criteria for qualifications are yet to be drawn up but the recipients of the donations would be based on sincerity and the evidence they would present, "or we might have a deluge of whistleblowers."

Lim said the CAC is also boosting its "catch-a-big-fish" project where volunteer legal experts from big law firms and law students from UP, Ateneo and FEU help prosecutors prepare graft cases.

Cuisia said the CAC last December urged Gutierrez to act on pending high-profile cases, among them the fertilizer scam, the Mega Pacific deal for the computerization of elections, the overpriced Cebu lampposts, and the Diosdado Macapagal boulevard project.

The CAC also urged Gutierrez to increase the office’s pool of field investigators.

"Two months have passed since that call and we have yet to see any meaningful response," Cuisia said.

The group criticized Gutierrez’ management style which it said is characterized by centralized decision-making.

Describing Gutierrez as "not competent enough," Cuisia said t hat in the case of the World Bank report, Gutierrez virtually wanted all information handed to her on a silver platter before proceeding with the case.

Cuisia said that in a CAC statement in December, the group pointed out that "corruption is the gravest threat to Philippine democracy and society."

It is because of this corruption, he said, that the country is missing out on a $600 million aid from the US Millennium Challenge Corp., which put the fund on hold after the government failed to pass certain hurdles.

The group said a good three years have passed since Gutierrez was appointed by President Arroyo to head the Office of the Ombudsman in December 2005, and by any measure, "her performance as head of the country’s top graft-busting agency has been dismal."