TWO days ago, leaders of US business interests met with the Philippine government's finance and industry leadership in what one American businessman described as an "open and frank" dialogue.

The meeting, hosted by the US Chamber of Commerce and the US-Asean Business council, was held at the Pierce Room of the Willard InterContinental Hotel, at Pennsylvania Avenue and 15th St., just a stone's throw away from the White House.

Leading the Philippine panel was Finance Secretary Margarito Teves, who was joined by Trade and Industry Secretary Peter Favila, Budget Secretary Rolando Andaya, and Central Bank Gov. Amando Tetangco.

US business interests represented at the dialogue included such industry giants as AIES, AIG, Citibank, Chevron, Coca-Cola, and IBM.

The American business leaders praised the Philippines for achieving significant growth rates recently, what GMA herself terms some of the "highest rates in the last 30 years." At the same time, however, the businessmen made known their opinion that much still has to be done to keep the Philippines competitive - from ensuring a stable investment regime, the continuation of reforms in the areas of taxation, a clarification of the role and value of foreign direct investments in the country's development plans, and of course a persistence in the effort to impose the rule of law while making bureaucracy more efficient, effective and transparent aka battling corruption.

Speaking of this area, in her speech to the businessmen later that night President Arroyo cited Ombudsman Merceditas Gu-tierrez for her success in increasing the percentage of convictions. The President said that under her predecessors the Ombudsman's success rate was only 5 %, but under Gutierrez it was up to 56 %. I tried to look around the room for reactions from Americans and Filipinos alike but saw none.

Actually, this was one area I wanted to ask about during the business-government dialogue, but I suppose due to my junior status in the room I was not recognized - and time was short anyway. I actually wanted to inquire of our government's finance team how it is trying to make sure that the playing field is indeed level, given the fact that countries around the world have so very different national laws with regard to corrupt practices.

Take the US, for example. American companies, wherever they may be operating, are subject to the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, which can mean that a company is fined millions of dollars, its trading on the US Stock exchange suspended if not canceled, and its company officials fined or sentenced to jail. If I am not mistaken the FCPA was an offshoot of the Lockheed scandal that rocked Japan in the 1970s and saw the resignation of then Prime Minister Kakuei Tanaka. It is so stringent that employees of Coca-Cola, for example, need to detail the amount of free products they provide to their government contacts - even if this is just buying the latter a glass of ice cold Coke.

I can imagine that other countries - the Chinese come to mind - still have to enact such legislation that, mind you, covers acts even beyond the legislating country's borders.

The President mentioned in her speech that the Philippines is soon to enact its own comprehensive anti-corruption law, and I am sure many in the audience are eager to know what shape that law would take. At the same time, beyond enacting the law, it would require of a government official such as Ombudsman Merceditas Gutierrez a strength of will and character that will surely make her lose friends, maybe even relatives. Her critics, for sure, will this early dismiss her as someone who has already shown she does not have what it takes to be the vanguard of the public interest in anti-corruption campaigns, But maybe, if our government only realizes always that more than just local eyes are watching, and that the issue of foreign direct investments is linked to this issue of a level playing field and the fight against corruption, maybe our officials' attitudes will change.