Corruption and irregularities roundup

-- Bush has a lot to learn from Arroyo, according to JB Baylon.

-- Transparency International: Corruption remains high in the Philippines

In the Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) for 2006, the Philippines is ranked 121st among 163 countries, with a CPI score of 2.5 together with Benin, Gambia, Guyana, Honduras, Nepal, Russia, Rwanda, and Swaziland. (Click on the image to view the 2006 CPI.)

The CPI score relates to perceptions of the degree of public sector corruption as seen by business people and country analysts and ranges between 10 (indicating low levels of perceived corruption) and zero (indicating high levels of perceived corruption).

The Philippines has in fact been steadily slipping in the TI Index, particularly under the Arroyo administration — at 65 in 2001, 77 in 2002, 92 in 2003, 102 in 2004, and 117 in 2005. From 2001 to the present, the country’s CPI score has not improved beyond 2.6.

PHILIPPINES CORRUPTION PERCEPTIONS INDEX, 1995-2006
YEAR	RANK	CPI SCORE
1995	36	2.77
1996	44	2.69
1997	40	3.5
1998	55	3.3
1999	54	3.6
2000	69	2.8
2001	65	2.6
2002	77	2.6
2003	92	2.5
2004	102	2.6
2005	117	2.5
2006	121	2.5

Take note: we had one of the highest CPI scores during erap's time (1998 - 3.3, 1999- 3.6, 2000 - 2.8). The higher the CPI scores, the better. The lower the scores, mas malala ang corruption. Crazy, no?

-- Senate unearths P5B waste in GMA’s office. NSA chief has P135 M in unexplained unliquidated advances.

-- P500M ‘Bolantic’ caper caused PNOC chief to quit. Diversion of funds to May campaign feared. More here from the Malaya editorial today.

-- Contents of Arroyo's proposed Charter a secret to most Filipinos

Except for a small group headed by Speaker Jose de Venecia, the full text of the proposed new Constitution remains a tightly kept secret. In fact, in spite of the advertising blitz in media, nominally funded by Sigaw ng Bayan whose petition for people’s initiative was thrown to the garbage heap by the Supreme Court, advocates never thought of publishing the text in a newspaper of general circulation.

Raul Lambino, head of the Sigaw ng Bayan, admitted that he ordered the printing of only 500,000 copies of the draft because printing more would entail huge expenses.

So it came to pass that Sigaw collected 8.6 million signatures but only one half million of them are presumed to have read what they signed.

In that case, Sigaw shoved onto 8.1 million voters documents they were asked to sign but were not told what they were signing was all about.

Read the whole thing.