Ombudsman urges gov’t: Pursue systemic reforms

While accountability is needed to curb corruption, reforms in the system are as much needed to keep abuses from happening over and over again, Ombudsman Jesus Crispin Remulla said yesterday.

- By DAPHNE GALVEZ

“Our national conversation cannot stop at accountability. Accountability is mandatory — but it is not enough. If all we do is punish without reforming, then we are merely managing the symptoms of a deeper disease,” Remulla said in his keynote speech at the Sikhay Laban sa Korapsyon forum held to mark International Anti-Corruption Day.

“Accountability corrects the past; reform secures the future. And we cannot accept anything less,” Remulla said.

“We must confront the harder task — fixing the systems that allowed corruption to take root, strengthening the rules that were too weak and redesigning processes that failed the people,” he added. Without reforms, the same abuses will only continue “under new names and new faces,” he pointed out.

The ombudsman said reform measures are expected to be in place by February next year, mainly on digitalization.