UPDATE: Transparency International - Bribery in RP among the world's worst

Will the Arroyo administration strongly protest the credibility of the TI corruption surveys and and malign it's people like it did in the past?

From the Daily Tribune:

Bribery in RP among worst in world — TI

The Philippines under the Arroyo regime has climbed high in the global corruption index.

Corruption watchdog Transparency International (TI) ranked the Philippines in the top rung of countries most affected by bribery in the world based on its Global Corruption Barometer 2007 report released yesterday.

According to the corruption watchdog, it is the police, politicians and judges who are the most corrupt.

One in every four persons has been asked to pay a bribe to the police, and political parties and parliaments or Congress, are the most tainted by corruption, a TI study showed.

The poor are targeted for bribes in both developed and developing countries.

The study “has made it clear that too often, people must part with their hard-earned money to pay for services that should be free,” said TI chairman Huguette Labelle. “And they do not see enough commitment when they look to their governments and leaders.”

The study found that among the countries with the highest level of petty bribery, with 30 percent of respondents reporting paying bribes, is the Philippines.

Mrs. Arroyo has been mired in corruption scandals that keep on coming, and where she has been seen to block all investigations into the corruption scandals, the latest of which are the China ZTE Corp. National Broadband Network project, along with the P500,000 cash bribes each given to some 190 congressmen and a big number of local executives, right in Malacañang.

The World Bank also recently suspended funding of several road projects in the country owing to the discovered “excessive” corruption and huge overpricing in bidding for the projects.

The TI survey showed the Philippines along with Albania, Cambodia, Macedonia, Kosovo, Nigeria, Pakistan, Romania and Senegal in the top rung of countries with the highest incidences of corruption in the world.

More from the Tribune:

Santiago’s proposal to the Pulse Asia survey was a variation of the ready response by the Palace on corruption surveys.

Presidential Anti-Graft Commission (PAGC) chairman Constancia de Guzman has made a somewhat similar proposal against Transparency International (TI).

De Guzman wrote the TI last year asking the anti-corruption watchdog to strike the Philippines off its list of countries included in its annual corruption level survey after the ranking of the country progressively sunk from the time Gloria took over the presidency in 2001 through a naked power-grab.

Stated differently, what Gloria, through her lackey De Guzman, wanted was for the country under her corrupt regime out of the TI listing to ensure that the corruption level in the country will no longer be recorded, and for them, the problem of gross corruption in Gloria’s government will simply vanish.

De Guzman even went to the extent of casting aspersions on the character of the head of the local TI chapter to defend Gloria from the unfavorable surveys.

De Guzman frequently enumerates the name of low-level state workers being charged in court for graft as proof that the government has been relentless against corruption.

Yet everyone knows it is only the small fry that Gloria and her anti-graft commission charge with corruption. What is their record on the Bolante P3-billion caper, for starters? Years have passed, and promises have been made, yet there are no findings and no charges to speak of from Malacañang.