Karl Angelo C.

Arceño REAPHIS (Unit 4)

Analytical Paper

Despite the long years of being confined within the borders of the seminary premises and not

being able to fully live out my life in the outside world, I still managed to witness and even tried to figure

out the best possible solutions based on my own preferences, to a few of the many problems in our

municipality way back when I was a seminarian and even until now. As known by the majority of the

people from across the eastern part of Samar Island, Guiuan, on the one hand, is the largest and said to

be the most developing municipality in the whole Province next to Borongan. Guiuan is rich in terms of

resources, particularly marine foods, which prominently includes various species of fish, shellfish, edible

sea plants, crabs, etc. But, on the other hand, despite all these, Guiuan has the worst politics in the

whole Province.

Growing up as a teenager, I wanted to know how our politicians are still able to maintain their

positions despite the fact that they are doing their jobs at the expense of their people. Politicians in our

place always take advantage of everything they can benefit from, in difficult situations especially in this

global pandemic that we are facing, where people suffer and become busy in dealing with this problem

so nobody would notice their wrongdoings.

Just recently, Guiuan has been classified as in community transmission, which means there is no

longer an exact and clear source of origin of the virus. Many contacts were not identified, which may

trigger the further transmission of the virus on a large scale. That is why the whole town is suffering, and

people are afraid of the possibility that it may get worse and may last longer. However, the Local

Government of Guiuan, in the sense of those who are at the top of it, the high ranking officials, priorities

their own selfish ambitions amidst the situation through dirty politics such as maintaining their

corrupted positions, continuing to steal from the public instead of focusing in controlling the spread of
the virus at large. If there may be officials who are doing their jobs properly, they would be very few and

have at least minimum authority to control over. Furthermore, politicians in the Local Government of

Guiuan are not being transparent enough in dealing with the pandemic and predominantly shows

incompetence as to how they deal with this kind of problem. If there may be solutions given, they are

not clear and sufficient enough to be followed by those under the local jurisdiction. It is simply because

of their negligence in suppressing this problem and their continued corruption that the virus has

become widespread throughout the town.

However, I think that blaming our politicians for corruption would also be inaccurate. Yes, they

are an integral part of the problem in our government but they are not the whole of it. Corruption and

the rest of the problems in politics do not begin at the top, the high ranking officials, but rather at home.

That is why treating our politicians with disdain won't help us to clean and change the system

miraculously. For now, I think there is no way we could end corruption in Guiuan and the government in

general. The best way that we could do, at least, in minimizing the continued prevalence of corruption is

simply by living justice and honesty within our own families. May this situation be an eye-opening

experience for the future parents of this generation in order for them to take seriously their roles as

primary educators. For it is in the family where virtues are learned. The absence of virtues in politicians

is simply a reflection of the kind of family they had in the past. Therefore, if we want to change the

system and improve our society, we must begin within our families.