Excerpts from the blog of Alecks Pabico of the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism

        EXCEPT for outranking Ferdinand Marcos, it should hardly come as a surprise that Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo was named the country’s “most corrupt” president in the Pulse Asia’s October 2007 Ulat ng Bayan survey. After all, notwithstanding valid questions being raised regarding its limited scope historically, it merely confirms what previous corruption surveys and reports done by independent groups have been finding out about her scandal-plagued government.

        Of course, Malacañang’s reaction to such a survey is also no longer surprising, with Press Secretary Ignacio Bunye shrugging this one off yet again as having “too few” respondents and the results possibly “skewed and not balanced.” Never mind that his remarks betray an ignorance of surveys as scientific opinion polling. What is evident though is an attempt to render people’s opinions on a public issue like corruption inconsequential in the whole discourse on governance.

        The survey results do find credence for them to be dismissed outright, magnified particularly in the context of recent events, including Arroyo’s state visit to Spain and the United Kingdom last week, tagging along what the Inquirer editorial the other day called an “indecently big” presidential entourage of close to 200 people -- family members (complete with household helps), Cabinet officials, legislators and other hangers-on.

        And before that, there was the junking of the impeachment complaint against Arroyo, albeit deemed weak, the third in as many years. The congressional hatchet job was preceded by the handing out of “cash gifts” to congressmen and provincial governors right in Malacañang, generating an orgy of denials and finger-pointing only to be followed by dubious admissions as to who the source of the money bags actually was. Even the filing of the impeachment complaint was tainted with attempts to bribe congressmen into endorsing it, allegedly perpetrated by an official of Arroyo’s political party, the Kabalikat ng Mamamayang Pilipino (Kampi).

        What started all this, of course, were the allegations of massive bribery that sealed the now cancelled National Broadband Network deal with the Chinese firm, Zhong Xing Telecommunication Equipment Company Limited (ZTE). Arroyo and her husband, Jose Miguel ‘Mike’ Arroyo were among those implicated in the controversial project. The President has been accused of allowing the project to push through despite her knowledge of the onerous nature of the ZTE proposal and the P200-million bribe allegedly offered by then Commission on Elections Chairman Benjamin Abalos Sr., who was said to be fronting for ZTE, to then socioeconomic planning secretary Romulo Neri. The First Gentleman, meanwhile, was tagged by the House Speaker’s son and namesake, Jose de Venecia III, as the “mystery man” who pressured him and his company, Amsterdam Holdings Inc., to back out of the national broadband project.

        So here you have the highest official of the land, ironically swept to the presidency by the raging tide of an anti-corruption movement, only to end in the public’s view a far worse government official than those they deposed in 1986 and 2001.

        But come to think of it, the first steps the Arroyo government took were actually along the road to corruption. Only four days after coming to power in 2001, Arroyo gave the go-signal to the most controversial power plant contract in the country by awarding the $470-million hydroelectric power contract to the Argentine firm IMPSA (Industrias Metalurgicas Pescarmona Sociedad Anonima). This was on the strength of a legal opinion by then justice secretary Hernando Perez, rendered in exchange for an alleged $2-million bribe, that removed all legal obstacles to the turnover of the 750-megawatt Caliraya-Botocan-Kalayaan power complex in Laguna to IMPSA.

        The IMPSA deal initiated this government on a six-year journey (and counting) of more of the same kind of governance, which has led it from one corruption scandal to another. Some of the more publicized ones include:

        • the allegedly overpriced P1.1-billion President Diosdado Macapagal Boulevard at the Manila Bay reclamation area;

        • the P728-million fertilizer funds allegedly diverted by then agriculture undersecretary Jocelyn ‘Joc-joc’ Bolante to buy the support of local officials for Arroyo’s presidential bid in the 2004 elections;

        • PhilHealth funds allegedly spent to enroll families for one year to induce them to vote for Arroyo in the 2004 elections;

        • Allegations of monthly payoffs ranging from P500,000 to P1 million from jueteng operators received by Arroyo’s husband Mike, her son Juan Miguel (Mikey), and her brother-in-law Ignacio (Iggy);

        • the “Hello, Garci” scandal involving taped conversations allegedly between Arroyo and former poll commissioner Virgilio Garcillano showing evidence of election-results manipulation in her favor;

        • the P1.3-billion computerization contract that the Commission on Elections then headed by Benjamin Abalos Sr. awarded to a Korean firm-led consortium which the Supreme Court invalidated for the glaring irregularities that attended the bidding process (Abalos et al. were however exonerated by the Ombudsman.);

        • the multi-million dollar secret lobbying contracts with Venable to push for charter change and other U.S.-based lobby firms;

        • the allegedly anomalous and onerous $510-million North Rail contract awarded to a Chinese contractor to rehabilitate the 80-kilometer railway from Caloocan to Clark.

        All this should tell us why the Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) for the Philippines only slightly improved in 2001 and has since gone downhill from there. 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).

        Under Arroyo, the country has been steadily slipping in the TI Index, with the country’s CPI score unable to improve beyond 2.6. For this year, the Philippines slipped further to 131 among 179 countries with a CPI score of 2.5 — just like last year and in 2003 and 2005 — the lowest it has attained since the index was introduced in 1995.