London-based Transparency International put the Philippines at “moderate risk” for corruption in defense and security institutions as it scored 55 out of 100 in TI Defense and Security’s Government Defense Integrity Index which assesses the quality of institutional controls to manage the risk of corruption in such institutions.
“Institutional resilience to corruption is modest across the Philippines’ defense institutions,” read the report which included a detailed assessment of the integrity of national defense institutions of 84 countries.
“Oversight of policymaking and procurement by parliament is particularly weak and transparency remains limited throughout the sector, including with regard to financial management. Nevertheless, corruption risk mitigation is relatively robust in military operations,” it added.
The overall assessment is derived from scores in 77 areas, divided into five key corruption risk areas: political, financial, personnel, operational and procurement. The Philippines scored moderate in all categories.
In Southeast Asia, the Philippines joined Malaysia and Singapore in the “moderate” group. Indonesia was tagged as “high” risk, while Thailand and Myanmar are “very high” risk.
In response to the report, Malacañang vowed to sustain its drive for a clean government. Acting presidential spokesman Karlo Nograles noted the country’s rating is similar to that of more than 20 countries, including Australia, Japan, South Korea and Singapore.
The defense and security sector is particularly tricky to monitor for corruption due to the secretive nature of the work but it can be done with a clean and determined government. Our current ranking is already decent considering the company we are in but there are always areas for improvement and the job is never done. The Philippines should continue to improve the quality of institutional controls to prevent corruption from taking hold in institutions that could very easily be abused and plundered by unscrupulous leaders and individuals who can be just waiting for the perfect environment and opportunity.*
