Speech
of
His Excellency Fidel V. Ramos
President of the Philippines
At the 8th anniversary of the Office of the Ombudsman

[Delivered at the MWSS Building, May 10, 1996]

Integrity in the
public service

AS WE gather here, our people are troubled by the recent instances of corruption in the public service that have come to light.

In the face of these exposed anomalies, our people wonder: how many instances of corruption take place in the Government that do not come to public light? What assurances do we have that Government is not just one big nest of vipers—where everyone is on the take? Is the Government trying at all to stop the corruption?

The mission of the Ombudsman

It is because of questions like these that the Ombudsman’s office was expressly created and introduced into the fundamental structure of government in our country. The framers of our 1987 Constitution saw it as indispensable for ensuring the accountability of officers and employees in public service.

Before this, we had an office in Government that specifically addressed the issue of maintaining high ethical standards in government service, the Civil Service Commission. But it did not have the capability to enforce these standards, let alone the capability to investigate wrongdoing in the public service.

In Section 13, Article 11 of the Constitution, we see clearly defined the mission of the Ombudsman—its powers, functions and duties. Allow me to stress here just two key points about your mission:

One is that the Ombudsman can investigate on its own, or on complaint by citizens, any act or its omission by public officials and employees that appears to be illegal, unjust, improper or inefficient.

The other is that the Ombudsman must assist in determining the causes of inefficiency, red tape, mismanagement, fraud and corruption in the Government and make recommendations for their elimination.

Making public officials accountable

In our current campaign against criminality and corruption, you of this office have a vital role to play. We will not succeed unless you do your part in making our public officers more directly accountable and in dispelling the climate of cynicism that infects citizens’ perception of Government.

Our country today is in the midst of a major economic modernization and social reform drive. Today, as never before, we see the promise of sustained progress and social cohesion before us. We see our country moving ahead, instead of lagging behind, for a change.

But while our momentum is clear, there still remains the danger that we may fall short of our goals. One problem surely is the threat that selfish political partisanship poses to the program of reform. Another is the possibility that our Government service will not measure up to the task of shepherding our passage to progress—because of lack of professionalism, because of corruption and because of sheer public cynicism toward Government.

Let me deal with the second point bluntly. Too many people in this country have the impression that public servants are lazy, incompetent and corrupt as a general rule. And the resulting cynicism is reflected in many less-than-qualified candidates running for public office and in little public support for measures that would make public service jobs attractive to the best qualified men and women in our country.

You and I know, however, that for every rotten egg in the basket of Government, there are many more who are honest, competent and dedicated. But, because we are not effective in weeding out the corrupt and incompetent in the ranks, the whole structure of Government suffers in the people’s esteem.

It is in this light that we cannot overemphasize the importance of the Office of the Ombudsman, as well as other agencies concerned with ethical conduct, in restoring public trust in Government. The challenge, let us say frankly, is not easy to meet. For we are facing a problem that has been embedded in Government for generations. It is a problem that over time has been abetted by a cynical public’s tolerance and by a bureaucracy suffering from low pay and difficult work conditions.

But complex as the problem may be, we must strive to wipe it out. And the way to do it is not by cursing the menace, but by confronting it head-on. Like those on the proverbial journey of a thousand miles, we get to our destination step by step.

The spirit of ethical government

If laws against graft and corruption were enough, we should be rid of the menace by now. But these are clearly not enough. In a book entitled Honest Government, a sobering reminder reads:

“Ethical government means much more than laws. It is a spirit, an imbued code of conduct, an ethos. It is a climate in which, from the highest to the lowest ranks of policy- and decision-making officials, some conduct is instinctively sensed as correct and other conduct as being beyond acceptance.” To me, ethical government is a component of the culture of excellence the Ramos Administration has worked hard to put in place these past four years.

I believe that “excellence” comes with the following essentials: a lofty purpose, creative diligence to solve problems and a deep personal commitment and willingness to work toward its achievement. These in turn must be bound and encompassed by a passion to be better than others. Passion combines courage and self-respect. It means staying on with tenacity long after others have thrown up their hands in despair. It means always going well beyond the comfort of “pwede na ito.” It means staying awake and laboring for long hours because being less than the best is never good enough.

Doing one’s best

It means regarding challenges that others are afraid of as opportunities. It means doing one’s best—because it is the right thing to do by one’s self and by others.

What is hurting our efforts to improve conduct in public service is the widespread perception that there is one rule for the rich and powerful, and another for the ordinary employee. Like it or not, this is what the public sees. This is why many keep looking for the big fish to be hauled in, even as some small fry are sent by the Sandiganbayan to hundreds of years in prison.

I do believe, however, that today we are moving in the right direction. Partly because of our reform program and partly because of public clamor, we are putting in place the mechanisms and procedures for policing more effectively our public service. More are being charged with official misconduct, and they involve not just some small fry, but some big fish too. And more are being dismissed from the service.

In this campaign, you of the Ombudsman’s office are playing the major part. I find it noteworthy, for example, that today on your eighth year, the office reports a total workload of some 55,000 criminal and administrative cases, including the 13,000-plus pending cases of the old Tanodbayan. Of this total workload, about 40,000 have been disposed of or finished by the Office of the Ombudsman.

Of the disposed cases, 12,400 were filed either with the Sandiganbayan or with the regular courts, jointly representing 38 percent of the disposed cases. The remaining 27,500, or 42 percent, of disposed cases were either dismissed for lack of merit, archived or referred to other agencies with appropriate jurisdictions.

It is also commendable that the Ombudsman has embarked on several graft-prevention activities—such as: the installation of a resident Ombudsman in 15 graft-prone agencies; the launching of an instructional material development program; the conduct of workshops on values orientation; the reinforcement of public assistance mechanisms; the strengthening of your fact-finding and intelligence-gathering capabilities; the intensification of research and systems studies for remedial measures; the accreditation of 269 corruption prevention units nationwide; and the establishment of junior graft-watch units.

Intensify your campaign

All these are positive steps indicating that the Ombudsman’s office is not standing still in the fight for honest government. But we would be naive to suppose that these alone will suffice to make our public servants more responsible and honest. Clearly we need to intensify and fast-track the campaign on your end. But what you do must be matched as well by purposive action on other fronts.

On the basis of my 50 years of almost uninterrupted public service, I have come to believe that fundamental change in official conduct will arise only when there is a concerted effort from all sectors to demand and insist on quality and honesty in public service.

As in the fight against crime, the entire officialdom and concerned citizenry—all of us—must be involved in the fight against official corruption. All sectors must do their part to enforce a new climate of ethical conduct in government.

It must involve the citizenry, who should expose every instance of graft in their dealings with Government officials and employees. It must involve our business sector, which should expose rather than abet corruption in the government service. It must involve our educational institutions and the churches, which provide the ethical foundations for our men and women in public life. It must involve our elected public officials and politicians, whose practices have greatly influenced and, in some instances, even distorted the very character of our public service.

Above all, it must involve every official at the top of our Government bureaucracy, whose leadership and dedication can make the big difference in creating a climate of integrity in the public service.

Honest government in our time

It has been wisely said that a political Gresham’s law exists in every government. If there is an atmosphere of corruption, it will attract the bad eggs into government and drive out the good. On the other hand, if there is a climate of rectitude in the public service, it will attract the good players and force out the corrupt. As long as we tolerate the notion that politics and public service are a “dirty business” and do nothing about changing the situation, we are going to be stuck with officials and employees who are indeed incompetent and corrupt.

But if we insist, as we must, that politics and public service are instruments for promoting and protecting the people’s welfare and the national interest, then we Filipinos have a good chance of achieving honest government in our time, and of moving on to the 21st century with our heads held high, armored with a culture of excellence.