President Duterte admitted that he cannot completely eradicate corruption in government, but can minimize it with the help of the people.
“I cannot erase all, I cannot stop it, but I can minimize it,” the Chief Executive said in his speech at the mass oath taking of newly-appointed government officials and the League of Municipalities of the Philippines (LMP) in Malacañang Tuesday.
And as he acknowledged that six years “is a very limited time to implement reforms,” Duterte said: “My predilection now is really to go fast [in addressing the problem].”
“If I could just get a fraction of the corruption sa ating gobyerno, mukhang okay na,” he said.
The President then revealed his plan to use the government television network PTV4 as a medium for people to air complaints against erring public officials and personnel.
“I was tinkering with the idea coming in last night from Basilan and Zamboanga, na i-open ko ‘yung PTV 4 for one hour each day and diretso na lang sila,” Duterte said.
According to the President, there is still rampant corruption in some agencies and that he feels insulted because fighting abuses was one of the cornerstones of his administration “Kasi hanggang ngayon ho, meron pa rin eh. And parang I feel it as an insult really. Kasi ‘yan ang pinangako ko. One is I will stop corruption. That was the only line that was repeated by my mouth all the months of the campaign,” he said.
Duterte then urged the public to freely air their grievances against erring public officials.
“Just text the agency and the person whom you have a gripe, a grievance to express, tell me about the issue and maybe that would be more in keeping with the transparency,” said Duterte.
“Lalabas na lang ‘yung pa-ngalan minus if you want, kayo nagpapadala, the complainants or the aggrieved parties or whatever, the wronged, you can always skip your number but if you want to do it publicly, fine with me,” he added.
The President said he would also ask inputs from lawyers to finetune the measure.
He said he wants to strike a balance between keeping the public informed, allowing them to air grievances and safeguarding people’s privacy.
