By: Margaret Padilla
To eliminate corruption in the Philippine government, presidential candidate Leni Robredo stated that if elected as president, the first Executive Order she will issue will be on the full disclosure policy.
‘Pag very transparent yung processes, eto yung magpreprevent for public officials na gumawa ng mali,” the Vice President responded to the first question posed to the eight presidential candidates who attended the second Comelec-sponsored debate, ‘Pilipinas Debates 2022,’ last April. 3.
“I will require all government offices and instrumentalities to make public all these transactions, all the contracts, all the procurement, even without the need or requests from anyone,” she explained.
Robredo, like the other candidates, believed that corruption in the country is caused by both human and systemic flaws.
The process by which official government decisions are made is defined by a (political) system.
She went on to say that the system should only demand and force good behavior from the country’s public officials.
Aside from transparency, Robredo implied that three conditions must be met for the system to be enforced or for public officials, to be honest, and efficient.
The first of the three conditions, according to her, was accountability, where she also agreed with the opinion of other candidates about it. She said, “dapat yung nagkakasala, napaparusahan.”
Finally, the third need she enumerated was empowerment. Robredo believed that “people need to know and be part of the process, kailangang alam ng tao at kabahagi siya ng proseso para nababantayan niya ito.”