Corruption is one of the most serious social issues the Philippines faces today.

It is
the spiritual or moral impurity or deviation from an ideal. Corruption may include many activities
including bribery and embezzlement. Government, or ‘political’, corruption occurs when an office-
holder or other governmental employee acts in an official capacity for personal gain. Basically, it
means the selfishness of one individual in order to pursue his or her self-interest. This devious act
may result to harsh circumstances for the victims, like poverty.

                    In recent years, there have been evident discoveries of this act executed within the
Philippine government. The most recent and famous would be the priority development assistance
fund or the Pork Barrel scam. Each Government official is given a certain amount of money in order
to pursue their desired projects to help financially challenged Filipino citizens in order to rise out of
poverty and for the development of the Philippines as a whole. But recent discoveries have shown
that these projects were never put into action and the money would go to a bogus non-government
organization led by Janet Lim Napoles. It was then discovered that these officials spent the money
for their own personal desires. Billions of pesos were stolen from the Filipino people. The money
would have helped the country’s current situation but it all went to unworthy government officials.

                    The Philippines has a history of corruption and it can be dated back to the Spanish
colonization. Spanish colonizers took control of the Philippines for over three hundred years, during
their reign they established a bureaucracy headed by friars and other high positioned Spaniards.
Business was set up particularly for the greater good of Spain and the Philippines did not benefit
from these whatsoever. A good example would be the encomienda system where Filipinos worked in
a farm and an encomiendero (tax collector) was tasked to collect money or the produced goods. The
encomiendero would be very corrupt and use the goods for himself. Latter, the system was abolished
because it was very corrupt.

                    The Philippines has a history of corruption and this may be the reason why officials are
still corrupt to this day. But history should not be an excuse and citizens should find ways in order to
end this act of fraud. There are numerous ways of trying to prevent or totally eliminate this from
happening. One can be the transparency of the Pork Barrel or PDAF. It should be explained to the
people or credible representatives where the money goes and what projects do officials pursue.
Another can be the total eradication of the Priority development assistance fund in order to eliminate
this idea of corruption completely. Solutions should be made in order for corruption to stop in the
Philippines. It has been going on in this country for more than a century and it is unacceptable. The
government should find ways to eradicate this for the development of the Philippines. 

Corruption is an intractable problem. It is like diabetes, can only be controlled, but not totally
eliminated. It may not be possible to root out corruption completely at all levels but it is possible to
contain it within tolerable limits. Honest and dedicated persons in public life, control over electoral
expenses could be the most important prescriptions to combat corruption. Corruption has a corrosive
impact on our economy. It worsens our image in international market and leads to loss of overseas
opportunities. Corruption is a global problem that all countries of the world have to confront, solutions,
however, can only be home grown. We have tolerated corruption for so long. The time has now come to
root it out from its roots.