How much corruption do you think there is in your country?

Do you think there is

more or less than in other countries?
Does the press refer to it often? Do you know of cases which don't "make it" to
the press?
Corruption can exist at many levels in a society. A corrupt policeman may accept
a bribe to ignore an offence; a local politician and businessman may exchange m
oney or gifts in order to secure government contracts; a head of state or a nati
onal government may engage in corruption on a massive scale to drain money from
a country. Which forms of corruption, if any, have you seen?
Do you think it makes any difference if the corruption takes place in private bu
sinesses rather than in governments? If so, what is the difference?
What type of governments do you think are more likely to be corrupt - democracie
s or dictatorships? Why?
If corruption is a problem in a country, how could it be reduced?~~~
The corruption in our government comes from transnational banks and corporations
buying influence. This is a direct result of several Supreme Court decisions, i
ncluding Marbury vs Madison and the most recent Citizens United. Thom Hartmann t
alks about this quite often and you can find his books in the library, and also
ask a research librarian for help. You can also call his radio show and ask for
help; he's quite the historian.
The solution to getting the corruption out of our government is to change the Co
nstitution to insert the word "natural" before the word "person" to indicate tha
t a "person" with rights is a living human being, not a bank, corporation, or un
ion. These people are working on that and they could also be a great resource fo
r you:~~~
You could try to talk about the causes of corruption. You could say something l
ike "Political corruption will continue in the Philippines as long as public ser
vants' pay is low." Or you could argue that "Political corruption in the Philip
pines happens because the political parties have no ideological stances and are
bound together only by personal ties."
You could talk about whether Pres. Aquino's efforts to end corruption will work.
You could say something like "Pres. Aquino's efforts to end corruption will ne
ver succeed because Filipino society does not strongly disapprove of corruption.
"~~~
orruption in the government. The people are charged with taxes but we end up hav
ing inefficient implementation of road and traffic rules, lack of a flood contro
l system, and "road constructions" (They destroy some roads then immediately "fi
x" it, as a tactic for kickback). Even if, let's say, we have a good president,
it would still be difficult for him to implement good governance practices natio
nwide because the rest of the politicians would not support something that has n
othing in it for them. This problem is passed from generation to generation, mor
e so considering the fact that the strongest politicians form dynasties. The pro
blems in the government, collectively, is the primary reason for the rest of the
problems.
Poverty. Decades ago, the Philippines used to be the second richest country in A
sia, next to Japan (That is why the Asian Development Bank was established in Me
tro Manila). However, because of the former president Ferdinand Marcos' corrupti
on, we are now a poor country with a lot of economic hindrances to match the pro
gress of the neighboring countries (e.g., Singapore). It is also sad to see that
the rich and the poor exist side by side (For example, when I was studying at D
e La Salle University, I can see the neighboring slums from the 4th floor; when
I worked at IBM in Eastwood, the poor residential areas are just a stone's throw
away; Makati City also has this problem)
Inefficiencies in processes, particularly when government is involved (e.g., ren

ewing your passport). Because of this, bribery is a common way of experiencing t

he shortcut and avoiding the hassle of falling in line the entire day.
Education system. While I believe that the "Big Four" universities (i.e., Univer
sity of the Philippines, Ateneo de Manila University, De La Salle University-Man
ila, University of Santo Tomas) have world-class academic standards, I also beli
eve that there is still a big gap between these and the other schools (particula
rly the public schools). It is good that the K-12 program has been implemented a
nd the Spanish language (a "nice to have" addition to English) was considered to
be eventually re-introduced in the curriculum, but it might be difficult to imp
lement them well considering the fact that we still have to solve the existing p
roblems: getting competent teachers (Many intelligent people are interested at g
oing to the professional world than the academe, due to salary), providing more
classrooms for the growing population, and to maintain/uphold fluency in English
.
Confusing cultural identity as a nation. Nowadays, it is more difficult to defin
e the stereotypical "Filipino", considering that our culture has been a combinat
ion of asian and western cultures. As you go up the social ladder, more western
values are prioritized even if they may conflict with the traditional "asian" va
lues. This can cause significant cultural conflicts between the rich and the poo
r.
Brain drain and lack of local opportunities to promising graduates. For decades,
the Philippines has always had large populations of migrant workers abroad. Fro
m a purely economic perspective, working elsewhere will always be more financial
ly rewarding. In fact, many doctors go back to school to study BS Nursing, hopin
g to work abroad in a lower level. In addition, with the advent of the call cent
ers that can pay higher than some local managerial positions, many college gradu
ates (even the board passers in nursing, accountancy, and engineering) choose to
take a dead-end path. Other business processes are outsourced here, particularl
y software, but they may not be as promising as the ones in Silicon Valley (e.g.
, software enhancements/maintenance instead of building a new and exciting produ
ct from scratch).
Colonial mentality. Case in point: having white skin and pointed nose are consid
ered beautiful, despite the fact that Filipinos are darker and have smaller/flat
ter noses.