Manila: Corruption and impunity in the Philippines thrives due to severe lack of one thing: whistleblower protection laws.
Until now, whistleblowers in the Asian nation are left to fend for themselves.
This makes them vulnerable to overwhelming retaliation from the powerful and well connected, thus perpetuating a cycle of theft of public funds, subpar infrastructure and poverty.
It's also contributed to the culture of impunity.
Amidst the massive corruption scandals linked to ghost or subpar infrastructure, a national whistleblower protection law, alongside relaxed bank secrecy rules are needed, said experts.
These two legal reforms, in tandem with a full freedom of information (FOI) act are urgently needed to boost the fight against corruption, a top United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) official warned Tuesday.
Kirbee Tibayan, UNODC country representative, praised recent “wins” like the new Government Procurement Act — a direct response to massive flood control scandals that exposed procurement fraud.
But she slammed key gaps in the legal toolkit.
“We don’t have a national Whistleblower Protection Act,” Tibayan said in Filipino during an ambush interview at the Ombudsman Strategic Planning Session in Baguio City.
“Whistleblowers provide most corruption intel, but they’re not adequately protected,” she stressed.
Tibayan also blasted the Bank Secrecy Act (RA 1405) as too rigid and archaic, blocking access...
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