Addressing corruption in gov't important, can affect investor confidence - Ambassador Romualdez

Efforts to fight massive corruption in the Philippines can affect foreign investor confidence, the country’s envoy to the United States said Tuesday, noting that it is important for the current administration to carry out reforms to address graft and corruption.

Ambassador Jose Manuel Romualdez said that while government efforts to root out widespread irregularities in flood control projects are important, it’s also crucial for them to remain focused on major external threats.

Asked by reporters on the sidelines of a forum about the impact of congressional investigations into flood control anomalies and if there were concerns relayed by Washington, he said, "Any kind of publicity like this is never going to be good for the Philippines."

“It is important,” he said on the ongoing investigations. “I have always said this, and I will continue to say this: we should really resolve the many domestic issues that we have. It needs to be done.”

Any kind of large-scale corruption in any country, he stressed, "will always bring down the level of interest of investors."

The corruption scandal on nationwide flood control projects being investigated by both houses of Congress and President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has sparked public outrage, leading to the resignation of Public Works Secretary Manuel Bonoan.

Philippine business groups, the academe, members of civil society, and the Roman Catholic Church denounced the massive corruption and called for criminal prosecutions of those involved. Several government district engineers, public works employees, and lawmakers from the House of Representatives and Senate were tagged in the scandal.

While addressing corruption is crucial, Romualdez said the government must also not lose sight of the external threats facing the country.

“We can actually lose a country if we don’t take care of what we need to do as far as the challenges that we face outside,” he said.

Romualdez said the Philippine embassy in Washington has been helping promote stronger US-Philippines defense and security relations to build a stronger deterrence against Chinese assertiveness in the West Philippine Sea.

Since taking office in 2022, Marcos has consistently defended the country's interests in the South China Sea, where confrontations occur frequently between Filipino coast guard personnel and forces and China’s coast guard, navy, and militia.

Manila renamed the stretch of waters in the South China Sea closer to the Philippines’ western coast as the West Philippine Sea.

“We have lots of problems. This is nothing compared to the problems we face outside,” Romualdez said. — VBL, GMA Integrated News