By Dolly Yasa
BACOLOD CITY — General Alliance of Workers Association (GAWA) Secretary-General Wennie Sancho is calling on anti-corruption advocates and like-minded individuals to push for the reactivation of the People’s Graftwatch in Bacolod City.
Sancho said Graftwatch, formerly led by the late Dr. Patricio Tan, made significant strides in fighting graft and corruption in government until 1990.
In a statement provided to the Daily Guardian on Monday, he explained that Graftwatch functioned as a frontline agency, receiving and facilitating requests for assistance, complaints, or reports of corruption. It then referred these cases to the Office of the Ombudsman in the Visayas.
Sancho added that Graftwatch also served as a Corruption Prevention Unit (CPU), increasing community participation by acting as the “eyes and arms” of the Ombudsman in monitoring key government projects and transactions.
“Corruption is a major obstacle to good governance,” Sancho said.
“It exists on a large scale, from petty bribery to grand corruption,” he lamented.
Sancho noted that the Philippines has a long history of corruption, with embezzlement of public funds, graft, and abuse of power by elected officials being widespread.
“It is widely believed that corruption is the biggest systemic problem in our society. It is part of the system—if not the system itself,” he added.
He warned that a more pressing issue is society’s attitude toward corruption.
“We live in a valueless society where only wealth and power matter, failing to realize that corruption is a dagger pointed at the heart of democracy.”
Sancho described corruption as “a reflection of our collective weakness, the lethargy of a society that wavers between passive indignation and mere indifference.”
“It signifies moral decay in government administration and the perversion of integrity in public service,” he said, calling corruption “a white-collar crime committed to serve private interests.”
Sancho stressed the urgency of reactivating Graftwatch and other corruption prevention units.
“We must act before corruption engulfs us completely, before our values are crushed, and everything is for sale, subjecting the poor and oppressed to further indignities,” he said.
