Do-It-Yourself Investigation
Corruption (kə-rŭp’shən) n. The abuse of public office for private gain.
What Citizens Can Do about Corruption
1. File a complaint before the Ombudsman. If they want officials or employees to answer for their wrongdoing in court, their first stop should be the Office of the Ombudsman. It will conduct its own investigation, and file the proper charges with the proper courts if strong evidence against the erring officials or employees is found. Citizens can also go to the city or provincial prosecutor who falls under the supervision of the Ombudsman.
2. File a complaint with the head of the department, agency, bureau, or local government unit, if they want employees to face administrative sanctions such as removal from office, suspension, demotion, or reprimand. Heads of government agencies are empowered by the Civil Service Commission to initiate disciplinary action against erring government employees. Citizens can also go directly to the CSC, which will most likely refer the case to the head of the agency.
3. Go to the Presidential Anti-Graft Commission, if the erring official is a presidential appointee whose rank is assistant director or higher. The PAGC has the power to recommend disciplinary action against presidential appointees. It is the President, however, who will decide whether or not the PAGC’s recommendation should be carried out.
4. File a complaint before the Commission on Audit if there is suspicion of fraud in government financial transactions. COA has an online complaints mechanism called Fraud Alert. Although complainants can withhold their names when filing complaints online, their email addresses will still be known, and there is no guarantee of confidentiality.
5. Take their case to their favorite senators or congresspersons, who can then sponsor a resolution seeking inquiries into the wrongdoing. The chamber before which the resolution is filed will decide which committee will investigate the matter. There is no assurance that the inquiry will accomplish anything, aside from generating media publicity and bringing the erring officials before the bar of public opinion. If the Office of the Ombudsman is on the alert, it may pick up from there and file cases against the officials.
6. Ask a congressperson to file an impeachment resolution if the erring official is a justice of the Supreme Court, a member of a constitutional body, or the President. Impeachment is a political process and will most likely be decided by the whims, caprices, and political affiliations of members of the House of Representatives. If the political tide does not flow toward an impeachment, the resolution will end up in the archives, as in the case of Ombudsman Aniano Desierto. If, as in Joseph Estrada’s case, the tide turns against the accused, the official could go to the impeachment court, which is the Senate presided over by the chief justice of the Supreme Court, and even land in jail after he is removed from office.
7. Go directly to the media, the court of last resort to many Filipinos. There is a wide array of venues to choose from in the media — radio commentators, television news, investigative programs, and public service shows, as well as the major dailies and tabloids— which can expose wrongdoing. In some cases, the glare of media attention will force various agencies of government to act on the case, either through policy reform or prosecution. Even if no response is elicited from government, it is enough that wrongdoers know that people are watching.
Source: Investigating Corruption, A Do-It-Yourself Guide. Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism, 2002.