KIKO TO GOV'T: MUSTER POLITICAL WILL; CURB CORRUPTION TO SURVIVE US FINANCIAL CRISIS SHOCKS

Senate Majority Leader and Independent senator Kiko Pangilinan today asserted that the best way the Philippines is going to survive the looming world financial crisis is by ridding itself first of corruption.

"What are we to do to ready our ship of state for the precarious waters? More than new legislation, I believe the best way for the country to cope with the possible shocks that may ensue in the aftermath of the US financial crisis is to step up efforts in effective political leadership and governance," Kiko said.

The United States House of Representatives yesterday denied the Bush administration's $700 billion financial rescue package for beleaguered banks. The Arroyo administration on the other hand started a series of meetings with economic managers last Tuesday to assess the impact of the developments in the US.

"For starters, we must plug the leaks that prevent the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) and the Bureau of Customs (BoC) from collecting over PhP100 billion annually due to inefficiency and/or corruption. We need the political will to go after those responsible for the inefficiencies and the criminal activities in these agencies, Kiko added.

"Furthermore, we must ensure that laudable government programs and expenditures do not fall prey to corrupt practices such as what we have seen in the NBN-ZTE deal, the fertilizer scam, among others. It is still genuine political leadership that galvanizes people into action that will determine whether or not we will successfully navigate through these troubled global waters. This must be our focus of attention as a nation," Kiko said.

The Philippines' 2008 corruption rating in Transparency International's Global Corruption Report dipped 10 points from last year. This placed the country in 141st position among 180 nations surveyed.

"The world is changing so rapidly around us that we must look to capable public sector leaders who are adept at change and reforms, who think outside the box and represent a new way of thinking and acting to ensure the survival of our nation. Needless to say the agitated situation in the Senate isn't helping any," Kiko ended.