The Corruption Of A People
by
Jose Ma. Montelibano

The greatest damage of corruption is not the loss of public funds, but the loss of our national sense of right and wrong. If there is one crime that the young, the weak and the helpless can accuse their elders and their leaders of, it is the moral treason that they committed by raising evil, especially the lesser one, as an acceptable norm.

Today, politicians are trying to nudge the public to become more interested in elections. The more incorrigible are pushing once more to convert a discredited Congress to become an incredible Constituent Assembly. I cannot blame them. Lacking in intelligence and conscience many of them may be, they are still human and can feel fear.

Greed and fear, the inseparable duo. The fear of lack breeds greed, and the application of greed triggers the fear of being found out. Fear and greed, a powerful duo. Greed has driven many officials to pillage the people and the nation, and the fear of being caught and punished develops an oppressive system which can selectively cleanse greed.

Youth study after youth study reveals the corruption, not only of public officials, but of our very value system. A society’s value system is more fundamental than any Constitution; in fact, a value system is the foundation of any Constitution.

A corrupt value system is not corrected by elections. Rather, elections corrupt an infected value system even more. A corrupt value system is not corrected by Constitutional change. Rather, Constitutional change can only introduce more refinements to corruption.

Elections merely allow a dazed Filipino public to select from a short list of candidates that is evolved from a discredited value system. Constituent assemblies or constitutional conventions merely produce more of the same corrupted views from more of the same corrupted members.

Corruption is not only the exploitation of power for personal gain, it is also defined as extreme immorality and depravity. How do elections and Constitutional change return the basic sense of right and wrong? How do they return morality and deter depravity?

Judges walk out to protest their meager salaries. The Senate then wants to double their pay. Young military officers mutiny. The AFP then wants to rush their pay adjustments, their low-cost houses, and even the delivery of new boots.

What about the victims of poverty? What about the victims of corruption? What about the victims of criminality? How will government placate them? How will government redress the wrong inflicted on them?

By offering new elections? By amending the Constitutions? Elections and Constitutions have been there all this time when we witnessed the corruption of our value system. They were never the answers. Those who tell us that they are wish only to fool us, most probably to perpetuate themselves in positions of advantage and power. They deserve the worst that their victims can dish out to them.

Where are our leaders, especially the ones from the dominant Catholic Church? Where are the bishops and the priests who can assert their condemnation of the evils that strut so free and proudly in a predominantly Christian country? Where are the voices of God who are mandated by their own oaths to defend the faith in thought, word and deed? Why are they silent as their flock is swallowed by the forces of perdition?

Corruption is not an economic ill, not even a political one. It is an issue of morality, not the kind that only the religious can talk about but the kind that all with consciences can relate to from the age of reason. The warped values of Philippine society are an indictment of every unit of society, from the family to the government to the priests of Christ and Allah.

The path out of corruption, towards change and progress, is not a difficult one. It is, in fact, the natural process laden with all kinds of natural support systems. It is more difficult to go against it than flowing with it. But we have done what is not so easy to do. We have managed, under the tutelage of our leaders, to dirty the clean, to ravage the beautiful, to make barren the bountiful.

The prescription for meaningful and sustainable change is nothing more but a return to simplicity. Be a good parent, be a good child. Work hard, study hard. Be truthful, be honest. Produce more, consume less. Pray more, worry less. Love your motherland, nurture its resources and protect its honor. Appreciate nature, protect fresh air, pure water and fertile earth, do not value them less than money. Respect and care for your neighbor, especially your brother Filipino, do not exploit them. Be strong so you can help the weak, not victimize them. Be virtuous so your demeanor shines like the sun and becomes a beacon in the night.

Is this prescription so sophisticated or complicated that no politician uses it as the minimum requirement for true change? Or uses it as the ONLY requirement for change?

Elections and Constitutional changes cannot bring change unless a change of mindset precedes them, unless a change of values prepares them. Filipinos have been benighted by their foreign conquerors for so long, and now they are being benighted by their own leaders.

We must not only change leaders but change patterns as well. We must bring back honesty and decency in our country, peace and order in our society, productivity in the work place, food, clothing and shelter to the family, and brightness to our future. We must reject corruption in any way, shape and form, in ourselves and in everyone else.

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