Speaking at the International Conference of Asian Political Parties (ICAPP) in Seoul, Korea, Senator Edgardo J. Angara today said that corruption can be prevented if the system of delivering service to the public will improve.

Angara noted the obsolete bidding system of procurement of public goods and services wherein bids can be rigged and final awards are manipulated because of convoluted processes and secrecy. He cited the E-Procurement Reform Law as the country's biggest anti-corruption measure to date.

"For so long, we in the Philippines have had a system where the friends of those in power are the ones who win bids for public works projects like construction of roads and bridges, or contracts to supply books to public schools and equipment to government offices," Angara explained.

"The same system then sees losing bidders file cases in court, citing a host of reasons and heaping blame on unnamed corrupt officials--a process that can drag on for years, with charges and counter charges thrown by the contending parties against each other while money has already changed hands and the project is delayed to the detriment of the people," he lamented.

"To avoid this, the E-Procurement Law requires the agency concerned to put on its website tenders for goods and services as well as the money budgeted for it. By ensuring a shorter time frame to complete a transaction, both business and the man on the street can benefit," Angara said.

Angara also noted another factor that contributes to corruption in politics and lack of good governance; the nature of political parties' lack of ideological base, that is.

"In about nine months, our country will be holding national elections, and at stake are all elective posts except the president, the vice president and 12 senators. Party loyalties will either be stronger or completely gone because, in the end, personal survival is more important," Angara said.

"Since principles and platform come secondary to perks and privileges, few political parties in the Philippines have stood out as a genuine organization that attracts members united for a common ideological cause as in, for example, Labour and the Tories in the UK. If we can establish political parties that represent the true aspirations of the people and create a new breed of politicians willing to stand up for what their constituents believe in, instead of kowtowing to the vested interests of financiers, we will have taken a giant step to addressing corruption," he continued.

Angara is the author of the Political Party Development and Campaign Finance Reform Act which seeks to make political parties ideology-based organizations and true instruments of change through providing subsidies used not only for electoral campaign but also for the party's developmental programs.