THE INVESTIGATIVE reports in this book were written between 1990 and 2000, a decade that spanned the administrations of three democratically elected presidents. During that period, the integrity of democratic institutions, which were re-established after the fall of Ferdinand E. Marcos in 1986, was challenged by charges of corruption and malfeasance. Virtually no office, including the Supreme Court and the Office of the President, was spared.
The reports included in this volume show the range of corruption that can be found in various areas of governance: from high-level political corruption in Malacañang and Congress to low-level corruption in local governments.
This book shows how the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism (PCIJ) has researched and put together investigative reports on corruption. All the articles in this collection come with an explanation of the research and reporting methods that were used by the journalists who wrote them. The documents that were obtained, the interviews conducted, and the other sources for the story are listed. The use of other techniques, such as computer databases or immersion in communities, is also explained. In addition, how stories are developed—by, for example, using case studies or establishing a pattern of irregularities—is discussed. The impact of the reports is also mentioned.
