Senator Mar Roxas last week said President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo still has time to stop corruption and red tape in her government to boost efforts to attract foreign investors so that the problem of massive unemployment could be eased a little bit before her term ends next year.
Roxas, chairman of the Senate trade and commerce committee, noted that high incidence of bribery cases and protracted business set-up procedures have made the Philippines unattractive to investors.
"The root of our problems stem from massive corruption in government," he said, citing the high incidence of sensational cases of corruption scandals that hit the country in the past 10 years.
"Unless GMA controls thievery in her government, investors will not even give us a second look and our economy will suffer," he added.
Roxas cited a recent World Bank report pointing to prolonged bureaucratic processes as one of the key reasons for the country’s low foreign investment rate. The survey showed 15 different procedures for starting a business that would take an average of 52 days to complete, with costs equivalent to 29.8 percent of the per capita national gross income.
On the other hand, there were 24 different procedures for dealing with construction permits that take over 200 days to complete and about 37 different procedures to enforce a contract that take a whopping 842 days to implement. The country also scored only 2 on the 1 to 10 scale that assessed the degree of regulatory protection given to investors in terms of full disclosure and the like.
Roxas said the first step would be for the Philippine government to show the international community that it is effectively cracking down on corruption, particularly by putting to jail officials and other influential people accused of pocketing public funds.
"The Ombudsman must take the first step by doing its job as the agency tasked to prosecute the corrupt in government, instead of letting go those perceived to be close to higher ups," he said.
Roxas To Gonzales: Do Your Job
Senator Mar Roxas last week hit Justice Secretary Raul Gonzales for blaming the Senate for "delays" in his depart-ment’s investigation into the complaints filed against Legacy owner Celso de los Angeles and his corporate cohorts.
According to Roxas, vital documentary evidence have been transmitted by the Senate trade and commerce committee, which he chairs, to the Department of Justice (DoJ), through the National Bureau of Investigation
(NBI), as early as March 12.
Moreover, the Senate panel has transmitted to the DoJ, through the NBI, copies of the transcript of its March 9 public hearing and the affidavits of former Legacy chief executive officer Carolina Hiñola and former chief finance officer Namnama Pacetes-Santos, who have both detailed how corporate funds were spent by and intermingled with the personal funds of De los Angeles.
The documents were received by NBI Special Investigator III Laureano C. Tugas II, who was authorized by NBI Special Action Unit chief Atty. Angelito DLP Magno. The NBI Special Action unit was formed by NBI director Nestor Mantaring to investigate the Legacy mess on the directives of Gonzalez.
The Visayan senator said Gonzalez is better off doing his job instead of pining blame to the Senate or other personalities the ineptitude and inaction of his department.
"I cannot understand why instead of doing his work, Gonzalez is making all these noise and blaming his office’s incompetence to others. It is good the Senate is investigating this because if not, Raul Gonzalez would not even spend a minute to look into it," said Roxas.
Roxas: SC Ruling On Party-List Reps
Lessens Powers of Trapos
Senator Mar Roxas last week said the Supreme Court (SC) decision increasing the number of available party-list seats at the House of Rep-resentatives has virtually weakened the power of traditional politicians over the legislative system.
"The SC decision is good for the representative democracy as it gives more chance for groups to be heard. Thus, the trapos’ (traditional politicians) dominance over the system is lessened," he said.
He said political issues, such as the controversial Charter Change through an illegal constituent assembly, could now take the backburner while peoples’ interests and concerns take center stage at the House plenary.
Roxas said, the ruling would correct the existing formula on the number of party-list representatives who could take their seats. From the present 238 House members, the number would increase to 270 after the high court ruling that all 55 seats for party-list groups should be filled up.
"The Constitution only says 1/5 is minimum reserved for party lists. So the 50 is the one fifth (1/5) if there are only 200 geographic districts. But now there are 219 such districts. Necessarily, the 1/5 of the new members will increase beyond 50," he said. /MP
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