Corruption in the philippines

Lee Axl E.Palo AB-Pol.Sci.2 Pol.Sci.6 TTh 4:00-5:30pm Ms. Erma Janne Cayas Corruption in the Philippines There are many problems here in our country but corruption is the leading problem here in our country, and corruption don’t help people, the only one who benefit with this act are those corrupt officials and sad to say it’s the people who are the one who elect them in their respective seats in the government both national and local. Actually there is already corruption during the Spanish colonization it is when an encomiendero (tax collector) was tasked to collect the money or the produced work of Filipino worker but because he is corrupt he used the goods for himself just like some of our government officials are doing right now. For those who don’t know what is corruption it is a dishonest or illegal behavior especially by powerful people such as government officials. But why these government officials do this kind of illegal act? The answer is that many government officials do corruption because they want to get rich in an easy way and because of self-interest. We all know that corruption never brought goodness to the people and the effects of corruption 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. In economics 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. One of well-known corrupt president is no other than ex-President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, the ex-president is considered as the most corrupt president based on the amount lost from the Filipino people. And according to IBON its about P7.3billions who are lost to the Filipino people at her administration. This are scandals under the Arroyo administration were the P728-million fertilizer scam, the Jose Pidal bank accounts, the Northrail project, the $14-million IMPSA power plant project, the P1.3-billion poll automation project, and the Macapagal Boulevard project and the famous $329.48-million ZTE broadband network scam. And because of this unlawful acts during her administration this are the biggest problems that the Filipino people facing at that time, Unemployment is at record sustained highs, household real income declined, poverty increased, inequality worsened, and Filipinos were forced abroad in unprecedented numbers. Prospects have been undermined by the steady erosion of domestic manufacturing and agriculture, a rapidly deepening fiscal crisis, and defeatist international trade and investment policies. In contrast, the profits of the country’s biggest corporations and the wealth of its richest families have continued to improve substantially. The period 2001-2009 is the longest period of high unemployment in the country’s history with the true unemployment rate averaging some 11.2% (correcting for the government’s not counting millions of jobless Filipinos as unemployed since 2005). The number of jobless and underemployed Filipinos grew to 11.4 million in January 2010 which is 3.1 million more than in January 2001, when Pres. Arroyo came to power. The 4.3 million jobless Filipinos as of last January is an increase of 730,000 from nine years ago; the 7.1 million underemployed is 2.4 million higher. Poverty has continued to rise even by the government’s low official poverty line. The number of poor families increased by 530,642 or 13% since 2000 to reach 4.7 million in 2006. The number of poor Filipinos increased by 2.1 million over that same period to reach 27.6 million. But the official poverty line is only P42 per person per day in 2006 which buys just a kilo of rice and a chicken egg; a higher threshold of P86 more than doubles the number of Filipinos classified as poor.  The Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) of the Arroyo administration only distributed an average of 119,301 hectares annually (2001-08) which is smaller than under Estrada (121,274 ha.), Ramos (296,395 ha.) and Aquino (169,063 ha.). The deterioration of domestic manufacturing and agriculture go far in explaining the weak job creation. This also highlights how the period 2001-2009 has seen the most Filipinos forced abroad to find work in the country’s history. Deployments during the Arroyo administration averaged 1.04 million annually compared to 469,709 (Aquino), 713,505 (Ramos) and 839,324 (Estrada); 1.42 million were deployed last year which was equivalent to almost 3,900 Filipinos leaving every day. What does the law says about this unlawful act? Penalties for violations. (a) Any public officer or private person committing any of the unlawful acts or omissions enumerated in Sections 3, 4, 5 and 6 of this Act shall be punished with imprisonment for not less than one year nor more than ten years, perpetual disqualification from public office, and confiscation or forfeiture in favor of the Government of any prohibited interest and unexplained wealth manifestly out of proportion to his salary and other lawful income. Any complaining party at whose complaint the criminal prosecution was initiated shall, in case of conviction of the accused, be entitled to recover in the criminal action with priority over the forfeiture in favor of the Government, the amount of money or the thing he may have given to the accused, or the value of such thing. (b) Any public officer violation any of the provisions of Section 7 of this Act shall be punished by a fine of not less than one hundred pesos nor more than one thousand pesos, or by imprisonment not exceeding one year, or by both such fine and imprisonment, at the discretion of the Court. The violation of said section proven in a proper administrative proceeding shall be sufficient cause for removal or dismissal of a public officer, even if no criminal prosecution is instituted against him. The thing so that corruption can be prevented or eliminated is through the transparency of Government programs, it should be explained to the people or credible representatives where the money goes and what projects do official pursue second is to educate the people to choose the rightful leader to lead them, it is the people who is needed to be educated because we are the one who will vote for our leaders. http://www.gmanetwork.com/news/story/83278/news/nation/ibon-corruption-scandals-under-arroyo-cost-filipinos-p7-3b http://www.lawphil.net/statutes/repacts/ra1960/ra_3019_1960.html http://www.ibon.org/ibon_features.php?id=86 http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/64131/arroyo-the-most-corrupt-president