Remoralizing the Goverment

The graft or corruption didn’t exist before. Public officers are expected to get money and enrich their wealth from the taxes of the people and do not give the needs of his followers. It was not illegal. There was no graft in the conventional society that was ruled by customs. We can review our history that there are no public officers that was put into jail because he uses the money of the people for their personal stuffs. But it is always immoral.

In modern times, way back at the start of heating of the fire of nationalism, democracy and other ideology, morality took over legality. Most immoral acts (depends on the culture) was illegalized. That was the time when graft became illegal.

In the Philippines, many issues regarding with the dishonesty of the public official to their fellowmen can be read and hear in the public media. Series of exposé has been published in the news papers and been aired on TV and radio. One of the hit news about this is the cases of our former presidents namely, the late Ferdinand Marcos, Erap Estrada, and Congw. Glora Aroyo. Though Erap case is different, I may say that it also degrades the dignity of us, Filipino as a Nation. Marcos and Aroyo, both are excellent presidents of our country tried to rebuild our nation. They both have brilliant programs that supposedly   lift our state from the ashes of poverty, but it all went wrong. Funds that were lend from the other countries and other international funding organizations were misused and suspiciously lost. Overpricing of materials and ghost projects have been reported and exposed to the people. Though these presidents somehow does not involved in such issues, the mere fact that it happens under their administration, as the head of state, it reflects how they are serving the country.

Due to this issue, the government is very serious fighting this kind of corruption in all public offices. Laws was passed the “REPUBLIC ACT No. 3019 also known as ANTI-GRAFT AND CORRUPT PRACTICES ACT of 1960”  that will punish and imprison all public officials that will commit such action. Two former presidents were put in jail after the court proved that they’ve stolen money from the government’s funds.

According to the report of ABS-CBNnews.com in 2009, The Philippines ranked 139th among 180 countries included in the index, up from its previous 141st ranking in 2008. The nation scored 2.4 in the TI index, compared to 2.3 in 2008, which ranked it equal to Pakistan, Bangladesh and the Baltic state of Belarus.

The current administration is very serious in cleansing the government and uplifting the country’s dignity that is almost 10 feet off the ground due to corruption. People became conscious to the action of their leaders, and the people themselves are the one who do the report whenever they saw or know any anomalies in the government.

It is the time for us to reshape our future. We should change ourselves for the betterment of the succeeding generation.