OFFBEAT MAIL

The International Anti-Corruption Academy (IACA) will open its doors to the first ever international Master in Anti-Corruption Studies. A two-year, part-time program, the Master is designed for working professionals from all around the globe who wish to remain fully employed while pursuing their degree. Upon completion, they will receive an MA in Anti-Corruption Studies. The Master programme will start in February 2013 with the first module. Applications will be accepted until 26 October 2012. The program combines distance learning with seven, twelve-day on-site modules. Six will take place at the IACA campus in Laxenburg, Austria and one at the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Academy in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. "The Master provides participants from both the public and the private sector with a better understanding of corruption. They acquire knowledge and skills for building capacity in the field and tools for helping bridge the gap between theory and practice," stated Marti...

Dirty insinuations against a ranking official's involvement in the crash of the ill-fated twin engine that killed the top boss of the Philippines' Department of Interior and Local Governments is slowly coming into the spotlight. Media reports said that a day after the plane crash, DILG Undersecretary Rico Puno, along with some police officials, went to the condominium unit being rented by the late Secretary Jesse Robredo and his family, for reasons unknown to many people. They were asking why Puno dared to go to the late Robredo's condo unit a day after his death? Was he looking for some records related to an investigation being conducted by the late Robredo against him? It's good that the security people in that condominium building in Quezon City were not sleeping on their posts. Otherwise, the mere presence of a ranking official of the DILG, together with some police officials, may have intimidated them. Instead, they asked the visitors to write their names in th...