PH's graft problem wider than Arroyo: analysts
Agence France-Presse
11/21/2011
MANILA, Philippines - President Benigno Aquino III has hailed the arrest of his predecessor as proof his anti-graft drive is working but analysts say much more needs to be done to end the country's corruption plague.
Gloria Arroyo, who ruled the Philippines from 2001 to last year, was charged on Friday with rigging senatorial elections, and Aquino has vowed to pursue her for a wide range of other corrupt acts she allegedly committed while in power.
"This is the fruit of our reforms to fight corruption. The principle behind these reforms is that the guilty must be made to account," Aquino said over the weekend in his first comments on Arroyo since she was arrested.
Aquino won a landslide election victory last year after campaigning almost exclusively on a platform of ending widespread corruption across all sectors of society, which is one of the main reasons for the country's crushing poverty.
The bachelor president and son of a democracy heroine is widely regarded as being corruption-free and he has used his clean image as one of the key drivers in trying to change the public's tolerance for graft.
Aquino has also vowed to hold even the most powerful people to account, and has made the pursuit of Arroyo one of his administration's top priorities.
Arroyo stood down last year with opinion polls showing her to be the most unpopular president since dictator Ferdinand Marcos of the 1980s, largely because of the belief she was corrupt.
She is alleged to have approved multi-million-dollar government contracts that enriched herself, her family and supporters. Arroyo is also accused of cheating to win the 2004 presidential election. She denies all the charges.
Political analysts say that, while the determination of Aquino and his aides to hold Arroyo to account signals a good intention to fight graft, they have not yet taken the major reforms needed to dig out the roots of corruption.
"Their idea seems to be to get one big fish, but that won't be enough," said political science professor Francisco Magno of the Catholic church-run De La Salle University.
"It has to go beyond the campaign promises, the rhetoric of change."
Magno said one of the government's top priorities should be to strengthen agencies that held officials to account, such as the ombudsman's office, a national anti-graft court and the state prosecutor's office.
"The (watchdog) institutions are weak. They need to be strengthened, put more resources, put in more lawyers and pay them better," he said.
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