JUSTICE Secretary Menardo Guevarra yesterday identified five government agencies which the Department of Justice (DOJ) would go after to rid the bureaucracy of corruption.
The government agencies are: 1. Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (PhilHealth), 2. Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH), 3. Bureau of Customs (BOC), 4. Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) and 5. Land Registration Authority (LRA)
“Siguro uunahin muna namin yung mga ahensya sa national level na talagang medyo prone sa corruption. Alam naman natin kung ano ang mga ahensya na ito na talagang madalas na nagkakaroon ng mga corruption activities,” Guevarra said over radio station DZBB.
“Yung PhilHealth tutuloy pa namin yan dahil hindi pa talaga kami tapos diyan. Tapos nasa target rin namin dahil na-mention rin naman ng Presidente recently ang DPWH.
Yung usual suspects eto talagang lagi naman nababalitaan natin ito ang Bureau of Customs at ang BIR. Mga ahensya na nasa ilalim mismo ng Department of Justice yung LRA, Land Registration Authority, ” Guevarra continued.
President Rodrigo Duterte last Tuesday directed the DOJ to investigate corruption in the entire government.
“I hope that all government workers, officials are listening. This is a memorandum from me to Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra. The subject is investigating corruption allegations in the entire government,” Guevarra said in a taped speech aired Tuesday.
“I will concentrate the last remaining years of my term fighting corruption kasi hanggang ngayon, hindi humihina, lumalakas pa lalo. Para na tuloy naging inutil ang mga opisyal ng bayan, na wala talagang magawa with the onslaught of corruption,” the President vowed.
For his part, Guevarra accepted the task given by the President, saying the new assignment probably was the toughest yet from Malacañang.
“Apart from my usual responsibilities as SOJ (Secretary of Justice), this new assignment is the toughest I have ever received from the President. I will need all the support and cooperation of the entire government machinery to achieve this singular objective of substantially reducing corruption in government,” Guevarra said.
Guevarra disclosed that he was mulling over the creation of several task forces to go after corruption in graft-ridden government agencies.
“ I am thinking of creating several strike forces that will simultaneously attack various corruption-prone agencies. But as I have said, the first order of the day is to organize the main task force and determine the overall strategy,” Guevarra said.
“Considering the breadth of this anti-corruption campaign, I will immediately focus on the organizational set-up and mechanism that will carry out the President’s directive till the end of his term, as well as the order of priorities,” he continued.
Guevarra called on the public to come out and provide information that could help the DOJ go after erring government officials and employees.
“It will help us a lot if government workers themselves and the people they deal with would come forward and provide us the necessary information to uncover corrupt activities and identify the perpetrators thereof. The new and expanded anti-corruption task force will take it from there, ” he said.
The Bureau of Immigration wasn’t ‘mentioned’ by Guevarra since it was already under investigation in connection with the so-called “Pastillas Scheme.“
