GMA News' Biyaheng Totoo to shine light on corruption's human cost

From the beginning of his campaign until he was elected, President Noynoy Aquino has named the fight against corruption as the cornerstone of his agenda. In interviews and speeches, Aquino has consistently referred to his campaign motto: "Kung walang corrupt, walang mahirap." (Defeat corruption, defeat poverty.) But how does corruption cause poverty? To answer this question, GMA News will launch a series of special reports documenting how corruption has affected the lives of poor Filipinos around the country. Entitled "Biyaheng Totoo" and hosted by some of GMA's top news reporters, new episodes of the six-part series will air during the newscast of 24 Oras every Tuesday beginning November 8. Each episode of Biyaheng Totoo will follow a different GMA reporter as he or she investigates a case of alleged misgovernance involving six of the top ten "most corrupt government agencies" as perceived by business managers surveyed by the Social Weather Stations (SWS) between 2000 and 2007. The agencies include the Bureau of Internal Revenue, Department of Public Works and Highways, Philippine National Police, Department of Agriculture, Department of Natural Resources and Environment, and Department of Education. "When we talk of corruption, the first question that usually comes to mind is 'How big is it?,' or 'Who’s involved?' Seldom do we think about its consequences, especially how it victimizes the poor," explained Deo Bugaoisan, manager for GMA News Special Assignments. "We wanted to do something different from what’s already being offered daily by news. News tends to cover events and occurrences as they happen. We wanted to discover and uncover how misgovernance affects the lives of ordinary folks," he added. View Biyaheng Totoo in a larger map The reporters’ investigations will take them to some of the country's poorest provinces, where corruption has compromised the government's capacity to provide basic social services to society's most vulnerable sectors. GMA News reporters Joseph Morong, Marisol Abdurhaman, Chino Gaston, Jun Veneracion, Cedric Castillo and Emil Sumangil will travel to the provinces of Antique, Tawi-Tawi, Agusan del Norte, Bukidnon, and North Cotabato, and Benguet. Each reporter will document their journey with with a digital SLR camera, and their photos will be posted on GMANews.TV a few hours before each episode airs.

GMA reporter Joseph Morong met poor farmers in Antique for the first episode of Biyaheng Totoo. Melchor Quintos

For the first episode of "Biyaheng Totoo," GMA reporter Joseph Morong travelled to Antique province where he met poor farmers who struggle to make a living by planting rice and vegetables. [Click here to watch the video.] Government assistance or support could help improve the lives of these farmers and their families -- but is the Department of Agriculture (DA) using its money for the right programs? A report by the Commission on Audit found that in 2007-2008, the DA was allotted P47 million for hunger mitigation projects. Yet a report by the Commission on Audit pointed out that P14 million of this was used instead to cover office operating expenses of the Bureau of Plant Industry. Check out videos and photos from each Biyaheng Totoo episode:

Joseph Morong in Antique (Aired November 8)

Chino Gaston in Agusan del Norte (Aired November 16)

Marisol Abdurahman in Tawi-Tawi (Aired November 23)

Jun Veneracion in Bukidnon (Aired December 2)

Cedric Castillo in North Cotabato (Aired December 6)

Emil Sumangil in Benguet (Aired December 13)

GMA News launched the first season of "Biyaheng Totoo" in late 2009 as part of its Eleksyon 2010 campaign coverage. The series then sought to identify important issues that the next president must address in each of the country’s top 10 poorest provinces. At each location, GMA reporters asked ordinary citizens to write letters to the next president of the Philippines. Jessica Soho turns over the Biyaheng Totoo notebook to PNoy:
The letters were written in a notebook, which Jessica Soho turned over to President Aquino last October during her exclusive interview with him about his first 100 days in office. -GMANews.TV