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."
"It is a track record of inaction,
indifference, bureaucratic bungling, and failure. Whether it is
due to incompetence or a deliberate subversion of justice may
still be a matter of debate, but what is clear is that Ms.
Gutierrez has been a liability in the fight to stamp out
corruption," the CAC said in a statement.