ADAMSON UNIVERSITY COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING Department of Electronics Engineering

The Root of the Greed and Selfishness of our Government Officials

Submitted By: Vasaya, Bianca Camille G. Cauntay, Elyssa F.

Submitted To: Prof. Eman Nolasco October 10, 2012

Introduction The republic act no. 6713 is about the law against graft and corruption this act is established a code of conduct and ethical standards for public officials and employees, to uphold the time honored principle of public office being a public trust, granting incentives and rewards for exemplary service, enumerating prohibited acts and transactions and providing penalties for violations thereof and for other purposes. It is the policy of the state to promote a high standard of ethics in public service. Public officials and employees shall at all times be accountable to the people and shall discharge their duties with utmost responsibility , integrity, competence, and loyalty, act with patriotism and justice, lead modest lives, and uphold public interest over personal interest. Our government has the power to govern our country because they have a big role and duties in our society. Government is the one, who make rules, regulations, solve our social problems or issues in the society, to make peace and order, and the most important our government is the one who hold the budget of this country to regulate our society. But because of the large amount of money they hold some of the government officials take the budget of our country, they dont give what is right to the people because of their greediness and selfishness. Graft and corruption in the Philippines has long been a topic of concern for those interested in improving the conditions in the area. The corruption of government officials and the failure of governmental leaders to use their position of power wisely has led to ongoing financial hardship throughout the nation and restricted its economic growth and cultural development. Political corruption is the use of power by government officials for illegitimate private gain. Misuse of government power for other purposes, such as repression of political opponents and general police brutality, is not considered political corruption. Neither are illegal acts by private persons or corporations not directly involved with the government. An illegal act by an officeholder constitutes political corruption only if the act is directly related to their official duties, is done under color of law or involves trading in influence. If the highest officials of the governments also take advantage from graft and corruption from the state's treasury, it is sometimes referred with the neologism kleptocracy. Members of the government can take advantage of the natural resources or state-owned productive industries. A number of corrupt

governments have enriched themselves via foreign aid, which is often spent on showy buildings and armaments. A corrupt dictatorship typically results in many years of general hardship and suffering for the vast majority of citizens as civil society and the rule of law disintegrate. In addition, corrupt dictators routinely ignore economic and social problems in their quest to amass ever more wealth and power. The cause of corruption in many countries is that there are opportunities to making excessive profits. This is primary due to restrictions and government intervention. Effects of corruption are believed that corruption reduces the economic growth of country as the incentive to invest decreases. Corruption also tends to alter the way a government spends money. Since corrupt government officials tend to spend money on things that will give them more money. Because of corruption it brings many social problems in our country. People suffer and cant achieve successful life because of selfishness of our government. Not only people are affected in this issue because our country is more affected in corruption. One of the effects of corruption in our country is the issue about poverty. We cant solve this issue if the government continues being corrupt because we are lack in budget that should destined in our country. Our society will not be in order if evildoing will start to the people who have a big influences and role in a society because they are the one who lead this economy to a good or bad situation. Discussion Corruption has been and will be a permanent reality, the harmfulness of which hurts both the individual, and the society. The consequences turn this phenomenon into a highly media-covered topic, being used for gaining votes as well. Its adduction for personal or group interests can turn the subject into old news, and the lack of interest can diminish the efforts to combat it. Most of the times, however, its emergence in public debates is proof of the extent of corruption and its degree of nuisance. The Republic of the Philippines suffers from widespread corruption. The reason why corruption occurs in the Philippines is that many officials want to get rich in a very simple way. They get the money allotted for the improvement of the country. When this occurs, the Philippine treasury will lose the money that can be used for the improvement of the country, and then, the Philippines will borrow money from other countries to meet the needs. As the country continues to borrow money, it will still lack the needs that result to poverty, unfinished projects, and economic loss. Corruption is not just the clearly bad cases of government officials skimming off money for their own benefit. It includes cases where

the systems dont work well, and ordinary people are left in a bind, needing to give a bribe for the medicine or the licenses they need. There are many types of corruption. For most people, bribery probably comes first to mind when they hear the word corruption, but other common types of corruption include nepotism, fraud, and embezzlement.

Another important distinction is between grand corruption and petty corruption. Grand Corruption meaning corruption involving substantial amounts of money and usually highlevel officials. Petty Corruption meaning corruption involving smaller sums and typically more junior officials. Corruption is also about the use of power government by the government officials for illegitimate private gain and misuse of government power for other purposes that may lead a bad effect in our society. Corruption also reduces the amount of money that the government has to pay good workers and purchase supplies, such as books and medicine. It distorts the way the government uses its money, too. The result is that schools, health clinics, roads, sewer systems, police forces, and many other services that governments provide are worse than they would otherwise be. Because of this, infant mortality rates are also about three times higher and literacy rates are about 25 percentage points lower in high corruption countries than in countries with low to medium levels of corruption. In addition, corruption is unfair and allows those with money or connections to bend the law or government rules in their favor. They can pay off judges, for example, or divert scarce drinking water to their land. For these reasons, corruption harms the environment and undermines trust in government. Corruption is a pervasive and longstanding problem in the Philippines. Many of our government officials was been accused that guilty on doing corruption in the Philippines. The Former President of the Philippines Joseph Ejercito Estrada was found guilty by the Sandiganbayan (anti-graft court) for plunder, Gloria Macapagal Arroyo and other officials that taking advantage to get the money of the country in surreptitious way. Once he seized power in 1972, Ferdinan Marcos, his wife Imelda, and a small circle of close associates, the crony group, felt free to practice corruption on an awe-inspiring scale. Philippine Airlines, the nation's international and domestic air carrier, was nationalized and turned into what one author called a "virtual private commuter line" for Imelda Marcos and her friends on shopping excursions to New York and Europe. Marcos' New Society was supposed to eliminate corruption, but when Marcos fled the country in 1986, his suitcases contained, according to a United States customs agent,

jewels, luxury items, and twenty-four gold bricks. The Philippines owed about US$28 billion to foreign creditors. Borrowed money had not promoted development, and most of it had been wasted on showcase projects along Manila Bay, or had disappeared into the pockets and offshore accounts of the Marcos and Romualdez families and their friends and partners. A 1987 government study determined that 25 percent of the national budget was lost to graft and corruption. Estimates of Marcos's wealth ran from a low of US$3 billion to a high of US$30 billion, and even after his death in 1989, no one knew the true value of his estate, perhaps not even his widow. President Aquino, who assumed the presidency in July 2010 on a good governance platform, vowed to combat corruption as critical to inclusive growth and poverty reduction. Early efforts to reign in corruption by the administration have improved public perception, but are frequently overshadowed by high-profile cases reported in the Philippine media. Two problems, in particular, have plagued the civil service: corruption (especially in the Bureau of Customs and the Bureau of Internal Revenue) and the natural tendency, in the absence of a forceful chief executive, of cabinet secretaries to run their departments as independent fiefdoms. Bribes, payoffs, and shakedowns characterized Philippine government and society at all levels. The Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry estimated in 1988 that one-third of the annual national budget was lost to corruption. Corruption also occurred because of cultural values. The Filipino bureaucrat who did not help a friend or relative in need was regarded as lacking a sense of utang na loob, or repayment of debts. Many Filipinos recognize this old-fashioned value as being detrimental to economic development. A 1988 congressional study concluded that because of their "personalistic world view," Filipinos were "uncomfortable with bureaucracy, with rules and regulations, and with standard procedures, all of which tend to be impersonal." When faced with such rules they often "ignore them or ask for exceptions." Nowadays foreigners and citizens alike say that the Philippines have the most corrupt leadership and economy. Corruption in the Philippines has become "a humanitarian crisis" and scandals increasingly seem to dominate the news. The worsening corruption has eaten up the right of every citizen to good governance, freedom, decent life, and more importantly his or her dignity. Corruption is a serious obstacle to the social and economic development of a country. The biggest losers are the Filipino people. In effect, the end-users are made to pay for overpriced goods or

services or are made to deal with low-quality or substandard goods or services. Despite the seriousness of the problem, people in government seem to show no sense of urgency or mastery' of the steps necessary to fight it. The same government that taxes us must demonstrate that public money is being used for public good, not private greed. It is our right to demand real change, action and improvement from those who take our money from and spend it in our name. According to the World Economic Forum Global Competitiveness Report 2008-2009, companies have identified corruption as their number one concern for doing business in the Philippines, and bribery appears to be an increasing problem for companies. In the World Bank & IFC Enterprise Survey Philippines 2003, 45% of companies admit to having paid bribes in order to 'get things done', and in the SWS Business Survey on Corruption 2007, three out of five managers were asked for a bribe in at least one transaction the previous year, and the amount of the bribe was higher than it had been in the past. Corruption is often encountered when interacting with public officials. Half the companies surveyed by SWS report that they are discouraged and claim that corruption is systemic, forming an integrated part of the way government works. They also state that most companies they compete against must pay bribes in order to obtain a government contract. Nearly 28% of companies in the Philippines report that bribes are solicited in their meetings with tax officials. Other areas where companies state that bribes or facilitation payments are often expected is in obtaining operating licenses, construction permits and import licenses. Although the corruption level of the private sector is not as high as in the public sector, one-fifth of all company managers claim that bribes are needed to win a private contract. According to the SWS Surveys of Enterprises on Corruption 2006-2007, only 7% of the managers reported corruption to the authorities, thus indicating reluctance on their part to be whistleblowers. More than 66% of the managers declared that it was futile to report corruption, while 49% where afraid of reprisals. Other types of private sector corruption common in the Philippines are illegal donations to political parties and bribery in order to influence policy-making. According to the SWS Business Survey on Corruption 2007, 25% of companies said that a typical company within their sector would make a donation to the 2007 election campaigns of an estimated amount of PHP 245,000. It is a commonplace feature of companies in the Philippines to support politicians directly or to donate to their parties. Some companies also report that politicians expect them to make campaign donations. In general, companies in the Philippines want some kind of influence in exchange for their donation, such as influencing laws and policy-making, or

some other undue advantage. The concentration of wealth within a small group of elite families, seen in combination with political donations, gives these families an undue advantage, and this has led to concerns as to their undue influence on both Philippine politics and business life. The effect of corruption has many dimensions related to political, economic, social and environmental effects. In political sphere, corruption impedes democracy and the rule of law. In a democratic system, public institutions and offices may lose their legitimacy when they misuse their power for private interest. Corruption may also result in negative consequences such as encoring cynicism and reducing interest of political participation , political instability , reducing political competition, reducing the transparency of political decision making, distorting political development and sustaining political activity based on patronage, clientelism and money, etc. In our society, the impact of corruption is often manifested through political intolerance, problems of accountability and transparency to the public, low level of democratic culture, principles of consultation and participation dialogue among others. The economic effects of corruption can be categorized as minor and major. However, both in one way or the other have serious impact on the individual community and country. First and foremost, corruption leads to the depletion of national wealth. It is often responsible for increased costs of goods and services, the funneling of scarce public resources to uneconomic high profile projects at the expense of the much needed projects such as schools, hospitals and roads, or the supply of potable water, diversion and misallocation of resources, conversion of public wealth to private and personal property, inflation, imbalanced economic development, weakling work ethics and professionalism, hindrance of the development of fair in market structures and unhealthy competition there by deterring competition. Large scale corruption hurts the economy and impoverishes entire population. In Social sphere, corruption discourages people to work together for the common good. Frustration and general apathy among the public result in a weak civil society. Demanding and paying bribes becomes the tradition. It also results in social inequality and widened gap between the rich and poor, civil strife, increased poverty and lack of basic needs like food, water and drugs, jealousy and hatred and insecurity. Closer home, corruption is said to have been factors for the down fall of past regimes byway of undermining the legitimacy of the governments and weakening their

structures, reducing productivity, hindering development, worsening poverty, marginalizing the poor, creating social unrest and then to their downfall. Corruption Improvements, as of 2011, the Philippines came in at 129 with a 2.6 CPI in Transparency International's list that ranks 178 countries and territories based on how corrupt their public sector is perceived to be. This is better than the Philippines' 134th ranking in 2010 with a 2.4 CPI. The CPI score indicates the perceived level of public sector corruption on a scale of 0 - 10, where 0 means that a country is perceived as highly corrupt and 10 means that a country is perceived as very clean. Transparency International-Philippines said some of the factors that contributed to the Philippines' (2.6) slight jump are the improvement in government service, and cutting red tape. The group believes that the government's efforts to prosecute former President Gloria MacapagalArroyo may positively affect the perception on corruption as this shows the government means business. If corruption will continue in our country we cant solve our social issues and problems that we Filipinos are facing. We need to be a responsible and honest citizen of this country. Hope and change in this country will start on our high officials of the Philippines, because they are the one who govern this county to a better future ahead in our society.

Results/Conclusions As long as there is greed, there will be corruption. One of the causes of corruption is inequality. When people see that others have more than they do, they want more. They will see that others are not acting ethically, so they will act unethically. In a sense, corruption is contagious. Usually it is more widespread in places where people look the other way, and have looked the other way. Stop looking the other way, and ignoring corruption, and you have the first step to end it. There has been corruption since the beginning of time and it's not going to go away. We cant solve this problem if the government will continue their evil doings in our society. The success of our country will start to the people who have the power to lead this society in good a way. Our government should know their responsibilities and priorities to his people, to have an effective economy in our society. They should treat all people equally and most of all they should not get the money of the country. We should 8

realize that corruption prevails in every department whether its judiciary, ministries or any government department. There cannot be one solution for all types of corruption.

In a big step the government should monitor the flow of money because corruption is mainly done for earning black money. Flow of money should be monitored through a committee having members from all different departments. And finally, the government should receive all the documents starting from its allocation to its distribution. A government should strengthen the laws related to corruption. Those who are involved must be punished and be in jail. In case of government departments, officials should be suspended from their job up to the inquiry report, and then appropriate action should be taken against them. We can fight or stop corruption in some ways; first, the basic institution of good governance needs to be strengthened. At the head of this list is the judiciary, which is itself the guardian of laws and integrity. But if the judiciary is itself corrupt, the problem is compounded and the public at large without rule of law. Second, the capacity and integrity of enforcement need to be enhanced. The best law has no value if it is not enforced. The best judges and magistrates are wasted if cases are never brought to them. Good investigations are wasted effort if the judge or magistrate is corrupt. Third, a government needs to put in place a solid set of preventive tools. Codes of Conduct and strong independent oversight bodies can help ensure that the acceptable standards of behavior are respected in both the private and public sector. Political leaders in all branches of government, legislative and judiciary can be required to have transparency in their own financial dealings through asset disclosure for themselves and their family members. Fourth, the public needs to be educated on the advantages of good governance and participate in promoting it. The public itself bears a large share of responsibility for insisting on honesty and integrity in government and business. The public needs to learn that not to let anybody buy their vote, not to pay bribes themselves, to report incidents of corruption to the authorities and to teach their children the right values that integrity is good and corruption is bad. Moreover parents and teachers are the responsible persons for their child's future. They can teach moral behavior right from childhood. We can start by always being honest ourselves and always paying our taxes, returning stuff we borrow, asking and paying a fair price. And ensuring we are registered to vote and vote in every election

and consider standing for election ourselves. It is easier to change ourselves than others and by trading honestly and fairly it is less likely others will feel a need to get back at other cheats. Recommendations The questions have remained unanswered for so long, is corruption inevitable? If not, what can we do about it? Unbelievably, there is a cure for corruption based on compelling ideas and practical results that requires little political will and uses existing capacities in a country for its implementation. Most crimes (which often is a sign of corruption) is opportunistic which would mean we would have to eliminate scenarios in which people feel they could commit those crimes or be corrupt. Every one of us has within us the seeds of corruption, despite the way we've been brought up, the way we've been educated and the relative wealth or poverty we're born into. So, corruption equals to self-interest and the impulsiveness with which we protect ourselves. It is too difficult to stop corruption through public policy and other measures as the tendency to become corrupt originates in extreme self-interest. In other words, each individual human being needs to empathize with the other when an opportunity to be corrupt arises. Inefficient work culture, Red-tapes, delay in getting justice & most important, the Manipulative Elective Democracy breeds corruption. It is integrity education. Integrity courses are programmed designed to build integrity and fight corruption. Integrity courses teach competencies to enable students to work and live with integrity. There is no single magic wand to wipe away corruption but a combination of incentives and disincentives as well as penalties can be effective. First, legislative should simplify rules and procedures and reduce scope for discretion, reduce taxes and duties, remove unnecessary quotas and licenses, improve recruitment and training standards for the bureaucracy, provide avenues for career growth and reasonable salaries, educate people against corruption, right to information should be available to the people to question any decision of the government, freedom of the press is essential to ensure fair reporting, enable increased adoption of internet technologies and computerization to provide increased transparency and dissemination of information, the government can charge expedited fees to provide services within shorter time frames avoiding the need for corruption for delivery of services, reward and punishment policy to be instituted for bureaucrats, stiff penalties and jail terms for serious cases of

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institutionalized corruption to act as a deterrent and most especially an independent authority to be set up to probe and prosecute serious cases of corruption.

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References: In Internet:

http://www.chanrobles.com/republicactno6713.htm#.UFGurLLiYRk http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_corruption http://ask.reference.com/related/Corruption+Definition?o=102545&qsrc=121&l=di r http://www.ask.com/web?qsrc=6&q=Reasons+for+Corruption&o=102852&l=dir http://www.ask.com/web?qsrc=6&q=Impact+of+Corruption&o=102852&l=dir http://www.ask.com/web?qsrc=6&q=Cause+and+Effects+of+Corruption&o=1028 52&l=dir http://www.ask.com/web?q=What+Cause+And+Effect+The+Corruption%3f&o=10 2852&l=dir&qsrc=3053&rq=on http://www.ask.com/wiki/Corruption_in_the_Philippines?

In Books

Turning points IV Economics Book Sociology Book

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