President Arroyo will meet with United States officials today to discuss the Philippines’ anti-corruption efforts being supported by Washington through the P1-billion Millennium Challenge Corp. (MCC) grant.
Finance Secretary Margarito Teves, US Ambassador Kristie Kenney and Charles Sethness, vice president for accountability of the MCC, will sign the grant.
Other US officials who will be present are Maria Longi, director of the threshold programs; Samuel Stratman, managing director for media relations; and congressional and public affairs and US Agency for International Development’s acting mission director Frank Donovan.
Mrs. Arroyo said the country’s reforms earned for the Philippines the P1-billion grant from the US to strengthen the country’s fight against corruption.
With the new funds, she said the Office of the Ombudsman and the Presidential Anti-Graft Commission (PAGC) would be able to hire more investigators and prosecutors, and employ new technology in the fight against corruption.
Mrs. Arroyo matched the grant with another P1 billion from the government’s fiscal savings.
Under the MCC program, the Philippine government will accelerate the pace of sustainable and continuous efforts to stamp out corruption, plug revenue leaks, increase tax collection and ultimately channel more resources to poverty reduction programs and social services such as health care and education.
The program will also reduce corruption by strengthening the Office of the Ombudsman and enforcement in the Department of Finance and its Revenue Integrity Protection Service, the Bureau of Internal Revenue and the Bureau of Customs. — Aurea Calica