General Alliance of Workers Association (GAWA) secretary-general Wennie Sancho is calling anti-corruption advocates and likeminded individuals to campaign for the reactivation of the People’s Graftwatch in Bacolod City that was formerly headed by the late Dr. Patricio Tan, who achieved notable gains in combating graft and corruption in the government until the year 1990.
Graftwatch served as a front desk in receiving and facilitating requests for assistance, complaints, or reports of any anomalous or corrupt practices, by referring such complaints to the Office of the Ombudsman in the Visayas, Sancho said in a statement.
Graftwatch served as a Corruption Prevention Unit (CPU) that would broaden community participation by serving as the eyes and arms of the Ombudsman in closely monitoring critical and substantially funded projects or transactions in their respective areas of concern, he said.
Sancho furthermore averred that corruption is a significant obstacle to good governance. Corruption exists at a considerable scale and scope ranging from petty bribery to grand corruption.
“The Philippines has a long history of corruption, from embezzlement of public funds, graft and abuse of power by elected officials which is very common. It is widely held that the problem of corruption is the singularly biggest systematic problem of our society. Corruption is part of the system, if not the system itself,” he said in his statement.
Sancho said there is an urgent need to reactivate Graftwatch and other Corruption Prevention Units (CPUs) before we will be swallowed by the specter of corruption and before all the values of society shall finally be crashed and everything is for sale subjecting all of us to the indignities of life, particularly the poor and the oppressed.*
