Small things can be big  

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News about corruption is not new to me. Being under an administration that’s eager to stop or at least lessen the corruption, these events are usual. However, I think there is something wrong. I notice that high ranked officials are the only investigated, impeached, convicted and kicked out to their positions. How about those who are at the local government? To feed my curiosity, I search about how was corruption at local positions. 

I was shocked on what I found out.  I read Mayors top list of officials facing corruption cases by Michael Punongbayan. It was about the number of cases filed against certain branch of the government to the Office of the Ombudsman. It turned out that city and municipal mayors topped the list with 2,075 cases about the anti-graft. The list was followed by different departments, bureau, commissions and agencies. Precisely, mayors are too many and if every one of them is corrupt, it will be a very big problem. As he said, “City and municipal mayors topped the list of government officials with the most number of cases filed against them before the Office of the Ombudsman last year.” means that we must not only focus who are on top, the high ranked officials. Diminutive or immense type of corruption is still a corruption.

Big things are from little things so we must not overlook small time corruptions. This issue will not be resolve if we are only catching the big crocodiles because time will come that the small ones will be as big as others.

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But still we're moving forward  

Posted by: Unknown


 
 


For the past few years, cases related to corruption in the country gains too much attention. Philippines, being one of the most corrupt nations in the world, was the main reason for this. I know Aquino’s administration is very determined to solve this issue.  Then I wonder, about the changes that Aquino did and the results of his actions to the past term which was known where immense corruption issues happened. 

I need an answer. I browsed the internet and found some article regarding on where is the Philippines today in the surveys about corruption. I read Philippines remains one of most corrupt countries—survey by Leila B. Salaverria, one of the articles on the broadsheet Philippine Inquirer.  She confirmed that our country’s rank in the corruption survey improved but still, in worst place. During the administration preceded by the current president, Philippines was at 134th,  in 2011 was at 129th both out of 178 countries and in 2012 placed 105th over 176 countries.   The immediate actions of Aquino caused all of the change and helped change public perception in the country. She said that urgent passing of Information Bill, impeachment cases, enactment of a whistle-blower protection law and a law on campaign finance reform to regulate campaign contributions and the adoption of a comprehensive anti-corruption program are concrete examples of his work. “The leading economies must lead by example and that they should see to it that their institutions are fully transparent and their leaders held accountable,” she quote. It was clear that anti-corruption programs are meaningless if the people implementing won’t change. 

If we want something, we must want it badly. Changes are result of actions. Undeniably, people have direct effect to change. It’s time to be responsible to every actions we do and every words that our mouth utters for it can cause bad or ideal changes. 

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Unchanging Key for Change to Ever-changing World  

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        In one of my Values Education class, we once discussed a topic about workplace values. My professor said, international companies that are here in the Philippines have one policy that some local companies don’t have. It is about receiving gifts at the office. Then I realized that in some Asian custom, there is nothing wrong with giving a gift to an official who has been particularly helpful to a certain person. But in Western cultures, such an act would be a bribe.
  
             Mystified, I searched about this in the internet. I looked through many articles but commentary of Frank J. Narvan some how answered my questions. His work, Defining Values, Morals, and Ethics, discussed the relationships of the three and how they differ in different places. He pointed out that the basis of values is the fundamental belief that a certain place has. Just like values as the root of morals. Having these two can enable us to make a standard in evaluating ethics. He even said that, “And of course we have ethical dilemmas, where the choice is not between what we believe to be right and what we believe to be wrong, but between competing rights.,”. We must be open-minded every time, for we meet different people everyday. As we do this, we practice learning. It is a life-time process so we must not settle for the knowledge that we have, for we don’t know what is truly right. Knowing many things will enable us to see things in different perspectives. I discern that it will help us greatly in deciding our standards and stand.

  
Values differ. It might be alright for some but not with others. Therefore, knowledge is the key in understanding things like the differences we all have. Because in this way we will know how to respect others.  Don’t stop learning. Don’t be fool and don’t stay fool. 

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