VIDEO:

FULL TRANSCRIPT:

Speech
of
His Excellency Benigno S. Aquino III
President of the Philippines
At the 1^st Integrity Summit

[Delivered at the Marriott Hotel, Pasay City, on September 14, 2011]

Good morning. Please sit down.

Speaker Feliciano Belmonte, Jr.; Chief Justice Renato Corona; Mr. Ramon del Rosario; Mr. Hubert d’Aboville; Mr. Felino Palafox, Jr.; Mr. Edilberto de Jesus; Ms. Marife Zamora; members of the Cabinet present, namely, Secretary Purisima, Secretary Singson, Secretary Baldoz, Secretary Domingo, Secretary Abad; COMELEC Commissioner Gus Lagman; Representatives from the international organizations, local government units, NGOs, and the business sector; fellow workers in government; honored guests; mga minamahal ko pong kababayan:

Magandang umaga po sa inyong lahat.

I am happy to be with all of you today to encourage all of you to participate in the Integrity Initiative. As you know, integrity was one of the battle cries of my campaign; and for the past 15 months, we have taken that battle cry to heart—working to foster a culture of integrity in government. In this regard, I am proud to announce that we have made some progress.

We have been able to appoint people of unquestioned ability and integrity to important posts in government—from Leila de Lima as Secretary of Justice, Grace Tan and Heidi Mendoza to the Commission on Audit, to Conchita Carpio-Morales as our Ombudsman.

Integrity has likewise shaped our budgeting process, which has saved our taxpayers billions of pesos simply by cutting funding for wasteful projects and putting the money to where it will benefit Filipinos the most. Efficient spending has allowed us to allocate a larger chunk of the budget to social services and defense, two sectors that have, for so long, lacked sufficient resources.

The Department of Budget and Management has also taken initiative in fostering this culture of transparency. In the 2011 National Budget, for example, there were provisions that mandated all national departments and agencies to publish important budget information and finance and performance indicators on their respective websites. In the same vein, the Department of Interior and Local Government also made significant changes, requiring all Local Government Units to disclose, on local bulletin boards, newspapers, and websites, how they spent their funds.

We have also been trying to enjoin the citizenry to take a more active role in governance. This year, we had six national government agencies and three government corporations start a consultative budget preparation process, allowing us to engage civil society organizations in preparing the 2012 National Budget. We also created a layman’s version of the 2011 National Budget so that more people can understand how the government is spending their money.  The Department of Finance launched a website called Pera ng Bayan, through which common citizens can file anonymous reports or leads on possible tax evasion, government collusion, or smuggling operations. All of these we have done to promote integrity.

But instilling a culture of integrity in government is only one aspect of the equation. We must also foster the same culture in the private sector, and this is why what you are doing today is most important.

Taking part in the Integrity Initiative cannot be measured immediately in pesos and centavos, but its benefits will eventually redound to everyone. For example, it is said that companies who engage in Corporate Social Responsibility, who have track records for integrity and competence, and who abide by the highest standards are valued at a premium in the stock market. Companies who have a reputation for running their businesses in a clean and efficient manner enjoy the confidence of investors, debtors, and other stakeholders as opposed to those who run questionable operations. To put it simply: by doing your part as responsible corporations, everybody wins—and by everybody I mean not just you as corporate workers, but you as taxpayers, as family men and women, and as citizens of this country.

All these are contained in your Unified Code of Conduct for Business, which I hope everyone will take extremely seriously. I know how hard it is, sometimes, to uphold these standards. There are times when it must seem impossible to navigate your way through the bureaucracy without being tempted to take a shortcut or to offer a bribe.

A simple example is paying taxes. It can be so tempting to pay the collector a fraction of what you owe in taxes instead of the proper amount. Since we assumed office, we have worked on improving our tax administration efforts, and one of the things we have done, is run after tax evaders, smugglers, and corrupt government officials. Since July 2010, a total of 61 tax evasion cases and 43 smuggling cases have been filed with claims totaling around 26 billion pesos and 54 billion pesos, respectively. As we continue to monitor these cases, I am happy to report that our campaign against tax evaders and smugglers is paying off. From January to July this year, revenues collected already increased by 13.47 percent year-on-year.

Imagine how much money has been lost over the years—taxes that could have gone to social services, infrastructure, debt reduction, or national defense. In the past, perhaps you could have justified not paying taxes by saying it would have been used to fatten the wallets of corrupt officials. But as we strive to show you that this is no longer the case, I hope we can urge our fellow citizens to pay their share of taxes.

As we continue fixing what is wrong with government, I urge you to stand alongside us and do your part. This will not be easy, but if we work on it—if we choose not to shirk our responsibilities as individuals—then everybody will get the message and act fast and accordingly.

Let me remind you that our collective desire to instill integrity into our respective communities does not end with a pledge of integrity. We are now obliged to live up to this pledge.

Next week I will be in the United States for some very important meetings. I was invited by President Obama, among others, to talk about Open Governance; and I will be proud to tell him, as well as the representatives of several other countries, how in the Philippines, the effort for integrity in governance—the effort for creating a transparent relationship between the people and their government—is one that is shared by the government and the private sector. I would like to thank all of you for your participation, and I am hopeful that you can all follow through on your respective commitments. This is the first ever Integrity Summit, but I hope to see even more participants from the private sector when the second one comes around.

Again, congratulations!

Thank you. Good day.