Philippine corruption in the point view of youth.

Today, I asked one of my friends to answer some questions about corruption. I usually ask these questions when the conversation topic leads to politics. Below is our question and answer scenario:

Question 1: For you, what is corruption?

Sharmaine Maurer (not her real name):

-          -Corruption is an unaccepted dishonest immoral behaviour of the people in authority.

Question 2: Do you think there is corruption in the Philippines? If yes, what can you say about the corruption in the Philippines?

Sharmaine Maurer (not her real name):

-          -Well, it is very obvious that corruption in the Philippines is vulgar and common to each and every Filipino. It already reaches the maximum state wherein moral actions are invalid to some extent.

Question 3: Do you think our government, under the Aquino administration, will be able to eliminate/lessen the corruption in the Philippines?

Sharmaine Maurer (not her real name):

-          -No. I really don’t think so.

Follow up Question: Why do you think so?

Sharmaine Maurer (not her real name):

-          -As our President Benigno Aquino III promised during campaign period before the 2010 elections, he seemed to be very promising so most of the Filipinos embraced that innocent image he is trying to portray. But come to think of it, his policies and this privatization policy is the number one cause of corruption and by that he has no difference with the past presidents. Philippines will remain as corrupt as before.

These are the usual answers I get when I ask about corruption, especially in the Philippines. It is very alarming that even the youth feel or think that our country can no longer get rid of corruption. It’s like there’s no more hope. We continue to live our lives knowing that there is corruption going on everywhere but we don’t even try to stop it. Yes, we always say that there should be no corruption, corruption is bad, we hate our politicians because most of them are corrupt, or that our country is the most corrupt country in the world. We just TALK about it, but not DO SOMETHING to change it.

Elections. Our votes are easily bought by popularity and advertisements of the candidates. In the end, we impeach them because they are not doing the job we want them to do and what they are supposed to be doing. In the first place, who were the ones who voted for them? They said that we should practice responsible voting, it did not work. We easily get fooled by “praise releases” of corrupt candidates. Of course the information that is fed to us during elections are the information that makes the candidate seem great, deserving, and the best. But we also have to know their backgrounds. What if they were involved in some kind of gambling crime or issue? Would you like them to be an authority in our country? Of course not. But in reality, there is a possibility that these kind of people are lurking around in our government.