Press Release
April 24, 2009

ROXAS TO GMA: STOP CORRUPTION, RED TAPE
POOR SUFFER BECAUSE NO NEW JOBS COME IN

Liberal President Senator Mar Roxas today 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 here 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.

"Ang ugat ng mga problema ng ating bansa ay nagmumula sa katiwalian sa pamahalaan (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.

"Kung hindi susupilin ni Gloria ang mga magnanakaw sa pamahalaan, walang papasok na investors sa ating bansa at lalong lalala ang lagay ng ating ekonomiya (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.

"Ang unang-unang dapat gawin ay kumilos ang Ombudsman na siyang itinalagang awtoridad na dapat supilin ang katiwalian sa ating pamahalaan, at hindi 'yung nakakalusot ang mga taong alam ng lahat na malakas sa itaas (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.

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