Thirty business organizations have banded together to condemn lawmakers and officials of the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH), along with other government personnel implicated in the multibillion-peso misuse of funds, calling them “ruthless” and abusive toward poverty-stricken Filipinos.

“In the strongest terms possible, we hereby declare our outrage, disgust and disappointment about the acts of many of our legislators in Congress and officials in the Executive Department, primarily in the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH), the local government units (LGUs), and the Commission on Audit (COA), for their shameful, unabated, continuing and excessive acts of graft and corruption – a crime against our people, especially those who continue to live in dire poverty,” the groups said in a joint statement Thursday.

The coalition—led by the Management Association of the Philippines, the Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry, PHILEXPORT, and others—acknowledged the President’s warnings against corruption but expressed concern that erring officials will persist in “robbing the people and filling their pockets, completely oblivious to the fact that they are betraying the public trust, committing a treasonous act against our people, and simply being unpatriotic and sinful.”

“It is thus important that thorough investigations be conducted by an independent body with the aim of prosecuting these corrupt officials, putting them in jail, and recovering the stolen funds. Justice for the Filipino people, especially the poor, can only be achieved by successfully punishing the corrupt,” the groups stressed.

Call to action

The business organizations also called on corrupt government officials to “moderate their greed.”

“Our collective call to these corrupt officials is, please stop. Have mercy on those impoverish citizens,” they said in Filipino.

The groups vowed to help identify those involved in the conspiracy to steal public funds, support citizen and voter education campaigns, and gather evidence of corruption against officials in the DPWH, LGUs, and COA, as well as their private sector partners, to build criminal and civil cases against them.

They also called for the blacklisting of businessmen and contractors who conspire with corrupt politicians and officials, a refusal to do business with them, and the signing of an Integrity Pledge by company leaders to refrain from bribery in exchange for project approvals or favors.

The organizations urged the financial sector, particularly banks and the Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC), to help expose money launderers and those with unexplained wealth “within legal and regulatory boundaries.”