Duterte 'honest enough' to admit corruption nearly impossible to eliminate —Guevarra

Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra on Tuesday backed President Rodrigo Duterte’s assessment that corruption persisted despite government efforts to eradicate it.

“The President was honest enough to admit that corruption is nearly impossible to eradicate. I agree with him. There is not a single country in the world where corruption in one form or another does not exist,” Guevarra said.

Guevarra’s office leads an inter-agency task force investigating allegations of corruption in the entire government. The Office of the Ombudsman is currently evaluating the complaints filed by the task force against several government officials, including mayors and registry of deeds personnel.

Around 200 government personnel have also been dismissed for corruption, according to Duterte.

“The challenge is to create a framework where corruption will be difficult to thrive, such as adopting electronic transactions, reducing red tape, streamlining legal processes, and imposing stiffer penalties,” Guevarra said. 

“This is not the responsibility of the government alone; this is equally the moral duty of every citizen to ensure that corruption is not abetted, but is rather exposed and prosecuted.”

In his final State of the Nation Address (SONA) on Monday, Duterte lamented that the “twin ogres of illegal drugs and corruption laid low for a while only to resurface [and are] still with us.”

“Corruption is but another term for stealing people’s money, dashing, in its wake, a nation’s goals and aspirations,” he said.

The President also said nobody could stop corruption “unless you overturn the government completely.” —KBK, GMA News