{"id":226558,"date":"2019-08-12T18:45:20","date_gmt":"2019-08-12T22:45:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=226558"},"modified":"2019-08-12T18:45:20","modified_gmt":"2019-08-12T22:45:20","slug":"govt-workers-may-accept-gifts-of-nominal-value","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2019\/08\/12\/govt-workers-may-accept-gifts-of-nominal-value\/","title":{"rendered":"Gov\u2019t workers may accept gifts of nominal value"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
Presidential Spokesperson Salvador Panelo made this comment as he defended President Rodrigo Duterte anew from criticism over his statement that police personnel could accept gifts out of gratitude for their service noting that it is allowed under the Constitution. (File Photo<\/a>: Office of the Presidential Spokesperson\/Facebook<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

MANILA<\/strong>\u00a0— There is nothing wrong with government workers and officials accepting gifts as long as it is of nominal value, Malaca\u00f1ang said on Monday.<\/p>\n

Presidential Spokesperson Salvador Panelo made this comment as he defended President Rodrigo Duterte anew from criticism over his statement that police personnel could accept gifts out of gratitude for their service noting that it is allowed under the Constitution.<\/p>\n

\u201cUnang-una ang nakalagay talaga sa batas, puwede \u2018yun<\/em>. Exception to the rule\u00a0\u2018yun e,<\/em>\u00a0exception to the law (For starters, it\u2019s started in the law that it\u2019s allowed. It\u2019s an exception to the rule, exception to the law),\u201d Panelo told reporters in a media interview.<\/p>\n

Panelo, however, said government workers and officials should use their discretion and only accept gifts that are of nominal value.<\/p>\n

\u201cSiguro<\/em>\u00a0(Perhaps) you have to use your discretion there. Eh kung yung nagbigay sa iyo ng regalo bilyonaro e baka naman kahit na para sayo malaki, hindi malaki sa kanya<\/em>\u00a0(If the person giving you a gift is a billionaire, if it\u2019s a large amount for you, it might not be for him or her),\u201d Panelo said.<\/p>\n

According to Panelo, the law does not specify what \u201cnominal value\u201d meant.<\/p>\n

\u201cBasta<\/em>\u00a0nominal,\u00a0bahala na sila doon. Malalaman mo naman kung masyado namang<\/em>\u00a0excessive\u00a0di ba<\/em>\u00a0(As long as it is nominal, it\u2019s up to them. You\u2019ll know when something is too excessive, right)?\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

He also emphasized that the giving of gifts should not be done \u201cin anticipation of a favor or in exchange of a favor.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat is important\u00a0hindi yun binigay<\/em>\u00a0(the gift was not given) in anticipation of a favor coming from the recipient or in exchange of a favor from that recipient who is a police officer,\u201d Panelo said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe fact alone\u00a0na hindi humingi yung<\/em>\u00a0recipient from the very beginning,\u00a0alam nating matino \u2018yun<\/em>\u00a0(the recipient did not ask anything from the very beginning, we know that he\u2019s a decent person),\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

\u2018Utang na loob\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n

Panelo admitted that as a general rule, government workers and officials should not accept any gifts but pointed out that as long as they did not ask for it, it cannot be considered as bribery.<\/p>\n

\u201cDati nang may tumatanggap. Ang ayaw ni Presidente at ang ayaw ng batas e ginagawa mong<\/em>\u00a0consideration\u00a0\u2018yun, hindi ka magtatrabaho<\/em>\u00a0(Accepting gifts has been a long practice. What the President does not want and what the law does not want is you\u2019re making it a consideration or you won\u2019t work),\u201d Panelo said.<\/p>\n

He said gifts could be given to government workers and officials during birthday parties or weddings.<\/p>\n

\u201cAng puwede kung hindi ka humingi at nagtrabaho ka ng trabaho mo<\/em>\u00a0faithfully then out of generosity\u00a0ng natulungan mo binigyan ka ng konti.<\/em>\u00a0Token\u00a0\u2018yun e<\/em>\u00a0(What is allowed is if you don\u2019t ask, you work faithfully then out of the generosity of the person who helped you, you were given something. That\u2019s a token),\u201d he added<\/p>\n

Panelo explained how Filipinos have the cultural trait or custom \u201cutang na loob\u201d (debt of gratitude) which is why they would give gifts in exchange for service rendered.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Panelo said it is the job of Congress to identify the threshold of government workers and officials accepting gifts.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat is addressed to the wisdom of the lawmakers how they will go about it,\u201d Panelo said.<\/p>\n

He said if cases would be filed, the court could also decide on whether a gift received is of nominal value or not.<\/p>\n

Panelo, also Chief Presidential Legal Counsel, reiterated that government will not tolerate corruption.<\/p>\n

\u201cBasta hindi puwede ang korupsyon, hindi puwede ang padulas, hindi pupuwdeng kaya ka gumagawa ng trabaho mo dahil may inaasahan ka\u2019ng darating sayo. O kaya ka gumagalaw dahil binigyan ka<\/em>\u00a0(Corruption is not allowed, bribery is not allowed, you\u2019re not allowed to work only because you\u2019re accepting something in return or work only because you were given something),\u201d Panelo said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MANILA\u00a0— There is nothing wrong with government workers and officials accepting gifts as long as it is of nominal value, …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":215180,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1145,16,95],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-226558","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headline","category-news","category-news-ph","mauthors-azer-parrocha","mauthors-philippine-news-agency"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/226558","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=226558"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/226558\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":226559,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/226558\/revisions\/226559"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/215180"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=226558"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=226558"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=226558"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}