Like giving Crack to a cocaine addict

Is how I sum up this news.

MANILA (AFP) - The United States has extended a 21-million-dollar grant to the Philippines to help bolster the fight against corruption, a government statement said.

The grant, extended through the US government's Millennium Challenge Corporation, will be channeled under a two-year program to the office of the Ombudsman, a special prosecutor for criminal cases involving government officials, and the finance department.

The program, which will be monitored regularly by Philippine and US officials, will focus on minimizing corruption, particularly in key financial agencies like the bureaus of customs and internal revenue, the government said.

Finance Secretary Margarito Teves, who oversaw the signing of the grant agreement late Wednesday, said that if the program is successful, the Philippines might get a larger assistance package of about 200 million dollars.

Corruption in the Philippines is rampant and reaches to the very top of the government. Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos weren't the only ones and nothing has changed in the last twenty years but the names of the thieves in office. Read this and this. So giving 21 million to fight it is as good as the US government taking a match to it.

The question left remaining is how much of the 21 Million will end up in an account owned by Mr. Teves.

Open Post- Freedom Watch, Right Wing Nation,