The Crimes and Corruption Watch International (CCWI) concluded its annual Lecture and Year-End Party on December 27, 2025, with leaders emphasizing significant humanitarian achievements, critical training on procurement law, and a new push to integrate artificial intelligence into its watchdog activities.
In his keynote address, CCWI Chairman Carlo Magno Batalla underscored the organization’s direct impact, announcing that the group had provided assistance to approximately 5,000 families affected by typhoons and floods in Cebu, Davao, Catanduanes, and Masbate over the past three months. He further revealed that the group’s total charitable output for the year was estimated at 50 million pesos or more, including the distribution of between 10,000 to 20,000 wheelchairs to persons with disabilities (PWDs) nationwide.
“We are the only ones who truly have pure love and help in the PWD sector,” Batalla stated, highlighting this advocacy as a core, non-political mission of CCWI.
The central agenda of the event was a comprehensive lecture on the new Procurement Law (12-009), designed to enhance the skills of CCWI’s observer corps. Executive Director Margaretta Batalla Fernandez stressed the evolving role of observers, moving beyond passive attendance to active documentation and vocal participation in government procurement meetings, especially concerning flood control projects.
“You need to have a voice, you need to speak up, and you need to document what’s happening,” Fernandez told members.
Adding a modern dimension to this mandate, CCWI Deputy Executive Director of Crimes and Corruption Watch International (CCWI) and Procurement Specialist Millicent Shatrin V. Ang Espina demonstrated how free AI tools, specifically Google’s Notebook LM, could revolutionize the group’s monitoring work. She argued that leveraging such technology is essential for producing faster, more accurate reports on government procurements, thereby increasing transparency and accountability.
“If you will do all of this manually, it will be slow, it will be filled with errors. With free AI applications… we should utilize it,” Espina explained during her presentation, which also recapped CCWI’s 2025 milestones. These included high-level engagements with the Philippine Competition Commission (PCC) and participation in the Department of Education (DepEd) Supplier Summit, positioning the NGO as a recognized civil society partner for government agencies.
The group, which claims to be the only NGO composed entirely of certified public procurement specialists, celebrated its internal growth and “organic” community. Chairman Batalla, in a spirited closing, celebrated the gathering as “our happiest Christmas party” because it was purely composed of dedicated members.
The event served as both a celebration of the year’s tangible humanitarian and advocacy work and a strategic launchpad for enhancing oversight capabilities through legal expertise and technology in the coming year.
Crimes and Corruption Watch International is a non-governmental organization whose members are certified public procurement specialists. It focuses on monitoring government procurements, combating corruption, and engaging in humanitarian aid activities.#
