An example of this is salary reform. An official says that instead of studying compensation packages for civil servants, various presidents typically gave “across the board” increases – for example, one thousand pesos to every government employee: “So if you're earning 3,000 pesos, and your boss is earning 20,000, you’d get a 33 % increase while your boss only gets five percent.” In his words, “salaries aren't just low, they're irrational”. The result is “clerks who are well-paid, and janitors and guards and gardeners who stay on and on because they cannot get a better deal elsewhere".
Today, public employees at the lowest level receive 20 % more than their counterparts in mid-sized private companies. By contrast, government professionals and managers are paid 30 to 70 % less than their counterparts outside the public sector.
Reforms tend to follow an old routine – trim, reduce, restructure – based on the conviction that the bureaucracy is “full”. But despite years of rip-and-remove attacks, the civil service has expanded ruthlessly. According to the SEPO, from 1960 to 1997 the bureaucracy grew faster than the population – 282 % against 160 %. In 1970, there was one civil servant for every 90 Filipinos. By 2001, the ratio was one to 50. That year, one out of five employed Filipinos worked for government. David says that politicians’ constant talk of re-organising and streamlining shows they don't understand bureaucracy. It is really a very complex organisation. As the Congressional Planning and Budget Department points out, “the bureaucracy... is not a monolithic entity.
It is composed of dozens of organisations tackling a huge variety of societal concerns, including health, education, housing, currency, security, law and order, environment and assistance to or regulation of industry and other production sectors”. The Department acknowledges that the people manning – and managing – these organisations have “various levels of efficiency, moral standards and work ethic”. It is still important to value these as these makes an organization better. Corruption does not only make an organization have a bad reputation, but also lose its people’s trust.
Sources:
www.Inwent.org
Saturday, July 9, 2011
Friday, July 8, 2011
civil SERVICE?
The Philippines, Southeast Asia's oldest democracy, can claim a civil-service tradition going back a hundred years – and even longer, if the three-century Spanish colonial period is counted. Unfortunately, pure-blooded isn't a mark of quality; and the challenges encountered in the Philippines will seem familiar to people from other developing countries.
“The delivery of government services remains dismal,” reports the Senate Economic Planning Office (SEPO). And according to Clarita Carlos of the University of the Philippines, “many times the bureaucracy we encounter is arrogant, aloof, arbitrary and corrupt in its behavior”. She refers to a study according to which “almost 50 % of government expenditures is lost to corruption”.
Foreigners aren't any happier. Peter Wallace, a Manila-based political-risk analyst, describes Philippine bureaucracy as “slow and convoluted”. The World Economic Forum warns that one of the hindrances to doing business here is the inefficient government bureaucracy.
Asked to compare her country’s civil service with its Southeast Asian counterparts, the recently-retired chief of the Civil Service Commission (CSC), Karina Constantino-David, replies: “The best way to describe it is, I'm salivating when I look at Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia, Brunei and, to a certain extent, Vietnam.”
The civil service's problems – corruption, inefficiency, politicisation, imbalances in staffing and salaries afflict bureaucracies the world over. What sets the Philippines apart, though, is that problems have been around for generations, defying attempts to solve them. As the SEPO notes, “reorganising the bureaucracy has been on the agenda of every administration since the 1940s”. It's almost a ritual for every incoming president to vow a knock-down, drag-out decisive fight against the bureaucracy, involving words like “reform”, “re-engineer” and, more recently, “re-invent”.
The result? According to Alex Brillantes, dean of the University of the Philippines National College of Public Administration and Governance (UP-NCPAG), “things have changed, but things have stayed the same ... many of the problems remain: politicisation, resistance to decentralisation, persistence of corruption”.
Sources:
Alan C. RoblesCivil, 2007:service reform /Whose service?
Jose N. Endriga, 1997:Comparative studies of national civil service systems / Country paper Philippines, prepared for a conference at Indiana University, Bloomington. http://www.indiana.edu/~csrc/endriga1.html
McCoy, Alfred, 1994:An anarchy of families – Filipino elites and the philippine State, University of Wisconsin Press.
Senate Economic Planning Office, 2005:Report on the bureaucracy, April 2005 PI-02-05.
Thursday, July 7, 2011
Child Corruption: The story of Angel-Grace
(Original story is from: Father Shay Cullen, 2010)
This is the story of a Filipino girl, Angel-Grace, who one of many, represents millions around the world.
Angel-Grace was five years old, and was living in a poor family in Angeles City, a place known for encouraging sex tourism. Angeles city is a two hour travel from the North of Manila. The little girl was raped continuously by her step-father. This is not something rare; it is a common crime in every nation around the world. Most of these cases go unreported because young children are helplessly at the mercy of their tormentors. Angel-Grace kept silent for years until one day, she told her mother what was going on, but her mother called her a liar and warned her not to make up such stories as her step-father is the family’s source of money and food. After that, Angel-Grace decided to run away. She lived in the streets and joined other children she saw on the streets with similar stories. They roamed the streets as beggars, unwanted and rejected. When she turned eleven, she had no education, no self-confidence and saw no value in her life. She only lived by an instinct to be able to survive. Soon a woman saw her and offered her hamburgers, drinks and money and told her to go with foreign tourists and massage them. What Angel-Grace did not know is that the woman was actually a pimp in disguise. The woman taught her how and soon the child was into it. For two years Angel-Grace lived such a life with no thought of an alternative, once more enslaved of the vicious circle of poverty, despair, abuse and victimization that only leads to yet more poverty and despair. This was Angel-Grace’s life. this would be her future, always poor, always wanting and longing for something she never had – to be loved and to love free. Angel-Grace was lucky, however because PREDA, a children’s rights NGO, took her into its home for abused children. It is jam-packed with 56 victims of such abuse at any given time. They keep on coming – and PREDA’s therapists and counsellors keep on healing and helping them. Also, PREDA’s legal office keeps fighting legal battles. Angel-Grace, who was exposed to corruption, now knows that healing is possible thanks to PREDA’s therapies and counselling.
This is the story of a Filipino girl, Angel-Grace, who one of many, represents millions around the world.
Angel-Grace was five years old, and was living in a poor family in Angeles City, a place known for encouraging sex tourism. Angeles city is a two hour travel from the North of Manila. The little girl was raped continuously by her step-father. This is not something rare; it is a common crime in every nation around the world. Most of these cases go unreported because young children are helplessly at the mercy of their tormentors. Angel-Grace kept silent for years until one day, she told her mother what was going on, but her mother called her a liar and warned her not to make up such stories as her step-father is the family’s source of money and food. After that, Angel-Grace decided to run away. She lived in the streets and joined other children she saw on the streets with similar stories. They roamed the streets as beggars, unwanted and rejected. When she turned eleven, she had no education, no self-confidence and saw no value in her life. She only lived by an instinct to be able to survive. Soon a woman saw her and offered her hamburgers, drinks and money and told her to go with foreign tourists and massage them. What Angel-Grace did not know is that the woman was actually a pimp in disguise. The woman taught her how and soon the child was into it. For two years Angel-Grace lived such a life with no thought of an alternative, once more enslaved of the vicious circle of poverty, despair, abuse and victimization that only leads to yet more poverty and despair. This was Angel-Grace’s life. this would be her future, always poor, always wanting and longing for something she never had – to be loved and to love free. Angel-Grace was lucky, however because PREDA, a children’s rights NGO, took her into its home for abused children. It is jam-packed with 56 victims of such abuse at any given time. They keep on coming – and PREDA’s therapists and counsellors keep on healing and helping them. Also, PREDA’s legal office keeps fighting legal battles. Angel-Grace, who was exposed to corruption, now knows that healing is possible thanks to PREDA’s therapies and counselling.
Tuesday, July 5, 2011
Don’t lose hope
Continuation of my previous entry
There is definite hop for the Philippines, of course. Two years ago, an anti-child pornography law was passed. It reflects similar laws in other countries, prohibiting the possession, making, distribution and display of images of sexual activity involving children or their private parts. Attempts to access or transmit such images on the internet or by cell phone are illegal too. Unlike many other countries, the Philippines has made it mandatory for Internet service providers to install filtering software to block child pornography. But internet is a whole different world and there are lots of ways to surpass that filtering software or blocking software. People nowadays have great knowledge on computer, especially those who are really computer enthusiasts or those who like tinkering with computers. It is possible that, because people are knowledgeable on this topic, that they will create counter softwares to counter the blocking softwares or filtering softwares that they are proposing. Anything is possible when it comes to the digital world.
Law enforcement, however, is an issue in its own right. PREDA and other NGOs will monitor the government’s performance and the Internet service providers on this count. But, knowing how most of the officials work, the tendency is that they will only monitor when people start questioning the status of their project. If the people think its stagnant and starts to protest, then they will act. Its sad to think that some of our government officials will only act once their own life or pride is on the line, but that is the truth.
As our president today won a landslide victory in the presidential elections on an anti-corruption platform, we are still waiting for the anti-corruption campaign he’s promised. Although this was proof of the Filipino people’s desire to finally get an honest government of integrity, the question is whether he and his new administration can overcome the pervading culture of corruption and transform the Philippines. We sincerely hope so.
There is definite hop for the Philippines, of course. Two years ago, an anti-child pornography law was passed. It reflects similar laws in other countries, prohibiting the possession, making, distribution and display of images of sexual activity involving children or their private parts. Attempts to access or transmit such images on the internet or by cell phone are illegal too. Unlike many other countries, the Philippines has made it mandatory for Internet service providers to install filtering software to block child pornography. But internet is a whole different world and there are lots of ways to surpass that filtering software or blocking software. People nowadays have great knowledge on computer, especially those who are really computer enthusiasts or those who like tinkering with computers. It is possible that, because people are knowledgeable on this topic, that they will create counter softwares to counter the blocking softwares or filtering softwares that they are proposing. Anything is possible when it comes to the digital world.
Law enforcement, however, is an issue in its own right. PREDA and other NGOs will monitor the government’s performance and the Internet service providers on this count. But, knowing how most of the officials work, the tendency is that they will only monitor when people start questioning the status of their project. If the people think its stagnant and starts to protest, then they will act. Its sad to think that some of our government officials will only act once their own life or pride is on the line, but that is the truth.
As our president today won a landslide victory in the presidential elections on an anti-corruption platform, we are still waiting for the anti-corruption campaign he’s promised. Although this was proof of the Filipino people’s desire to finally get an honest government of integrity, the question is whether he and his new administration can overcome the pervading culture of corruption and transform the Philippines. We sincerely hope so.
Monday, July 4, 2011
the other side of globalization
.. a continuation to my previous blogs
Tourist-sending countries, however, also play a significant role. They must realize that trafficking is a global trade and their citizens are part of the problem. “Sex tourists” create demand and pay big money thus making the illegal sex market alive. Donor governments should also take note that some of their citizens are sex offenders in far-away places. Their criminal appetite is stimulated in the Philippines and they are likely to prey on vulnerable minors at home too. And it is possible that they are prone to spreading sexually transmitted diseases including HIV or Aids. It is in the interest of the EU and its member countries to do more to combat modern sex slavery.
Trafficking and exploitation of young people for sex slavery is widespread throughout the world. The US State Department publishes an annual status report that gives grades to the countries that rank from good to bad and to be on the special watch list is bad – that’s where the Philippines ended up once more 2 years ago. This information is very alarming to me because before, I thought that sex exploitation in the Philippines is only minimal. But after reading several news, I figured that there should be something we should do to prevent it from rising. In my opinion, to eliminate this, having a VISA when entering the Philippines should be required. Why not be as strict as other countries when it comes to safety? I think that the only thing our government is concerned about is the number of tourists we get and the increase in revenues, As long as they get something out of it, they don’t care if the purpose of the visitor is to do illegal actions.
The State Department’s report “Trafficking in Persons 2009” states in the Philippines section: “The Philippines is a source, transit and destination country for men, women and children trafficked for commercial sexual exploitation and forced labour.” The document notes that Filipinas are trafficked abroad for commercial sexual exploitation, primarily to Asian countries but also to Africa, the Middle East and Western Europe. The State Department also points out that Filippinas are trafficked within the Philippines from poor rural areas to urban groups “for commercial sexual exploitation or for forced labour as domestic servants or factory workers”. The flip side of sex tourism, apparently, is international trafficking of women.
Tourist-sending countries, however, also play a significant role. They must realize that trafficking is a global trade and their citizens are part of the problem. “Sex tourists” create demand and pay big money thus making the illegal sex market alive. Donor governments should also take note that some of their citizens are sex offenders in far-away places. Their criminal appetite is stimulated in the Philippines and they are likely to prey on vulnerable minors at home too. And it is possible that they are prone to spreading sexually transmitted diseases including HIV or Aids. It is in the interest of the EU and its member countries to do more to combat modern sex slavery.
Trafficking and exploitation of young people for sex slavery is widespread throughout the world. The US State Department publishes an annual status report that gives grades to the countries that rank from good to bad and to be on the special watch list is bad – that’s where the Philippines ended up once more 2 years ago. This information is very alarming to me because before, I thought that sex exploitation in the Philippines is only minimal. But after reading several news, I figured that there should be something we should do to prevent it from rising. In my opinion, to eliminate this, having a VISA when entering the Philippines should be required. Why not be as strict as other countries when it comes to safety? I think that the only thing our government is concerned about is the number of tourists we get and the increase in revenues, As long as they get something out of it, they don’t care if the purpose of the visitor is to do illegal actions.
The State Department’s report “Trafficking in Persons 2009” states in the Philippines section: “The Philippines is a source, transit and destination country for men, women and children trafficked for commercial sexual exploitation and forced labour.” The document notes that Filipinas are trafficked abroad for commercial sexual exploitation, primarily to Asian countries but also to Africa, the Middle East and Western Europe. The State Department also points out that Filippinas are trafficked within the Philippines from poor rural areas to urban groups “for commercial sexual exploitation or for forced labour as domestic servants or factory workers”. The flip side of sex tourism, apparently, is international trafficking of women.
Saturday, July 2, 2011
Slavery=Corruption
The significance of child abuse in the illegal sex industry cannot be overestimated. It is important to understand that the lines separating adult and child prostitution are not very clear. Many adult prostitutes were forced into the business at early ages, and when a young woman is held as a slave, it somehow does not matter anymore whether she is over 21 or below 18. The victims’ ultimate human rights to freedom and self-determination are already constantly being violated.
Once a person has been tainted by prostitution, that person’s chances of rejoining society, starting a family and living a normal life become very low. Also, In the Philippines, even teenage prostitutes who get pregnant are forced to have abortions in illegal clinics that can even harm them even more since the procedures are not proper. Clinics like that are usually using primitive, barbaric ways to abort the fetus. There is even a possibility that one might die because of too much bleeding after an illegal abortion. Often the women try to hide pregnancies – with the result of later having to undergo late-stage abortions, a particularly horrific crime. Contrary to what the sex industry claims, sexually-transmitted diseases including HIV/AIDS are common.
It is well-understood that girls, or even boys, suffer psychological damage in the sex industry. Many are brain-washed to believe that the club is their new home or their new family that will take care of them, where they will one day meet a foreigner to marry and join for a happy life abroad. It is all an empty fantasy, of course, but the children believe it and look out for their prospective rich future life partners. It is very difficult for these people to build up self-esteem. They face a lot of hostility and violence and have no trust in adults. Their life experience is one of abuse, rejection and hardship.
Our country must be judged on how we treat our youth and children. Hotels and clubs should not be able to operate without a mayor’s permit and license and the local authorities must assume responsibility. It is a disgrace that the our authorities lack the political will or some prosecutors have no moral courage to implement the law in the Philippines.
Once a person has been tainted by prostitution, that person’s chances of rejoining society, starting a family and living a normal life become very low. Also, In the Philippines, even teenage prostitutes who get pregnant are forced to have abortions in illegal clinics that can even harm them even more since the procedures are not proper. Clinics like that are usually using primitive, barbaric ways to abort the fetus. There is even a possibility that one might die because of too much bleeding after an illegal abortion. Often the women try to hide pregnancies – with the result of later having to undergo late-stage abortions, a particularly horrific crime. Contrary to what the sex industry claims, sexually-transmitted diseases including HIV/AIDS are common.
It is well-understood that girls, or even boys, suffer psychological damage in the sex industry. Many are brain-washed to believe that the club is their new home or their new family that will take care of them, where they will one day meet a foreigner to marry and join for a happy life abroad. It is all an empty fantasy, of course, but the children believe it and look out for their prospective rich future life partners. It is very difficult for these people to build up self-esteem. They face a lot of hostility and violence and have no trust in adults. Their life experience is one of abuse, rejection and hardship.
Our country must be judged on how we treat our youth and children. Hotels and clubs should not be able to operate without a mayor’s permit and license and the local authorities must assume responsibility. It is a disgrace that the our authorities lack the political will or some prosecutors have no moral courage to implement the law in the Philippines.
Friday, July 1, 2011
Perversion=Corruption
It is obviously illegal to sexually abuse children in the Philippines, but it is very hard to bring wrongdoers to justice. NGOs like PREDA fight for the rights of abused children. However, they cannot rely solely on the government, in which corruption is abundant. Most of the time, public prosecutors are in favor of the accused merchants of commercial sex and ignore the rights of trafficked, raped and abused children. Bribes from traffickers, politicians or sex offenders make sure things stay that way(Cullen, 2011). Sometimes, prosecutors simply ignore registered complaints that must be processed within 90 days, according to our law.
According to what I have watched in the news, prosecutors in Olongapo City dismissed trafficking-of-persons charges against two US citizens, who had held two girls captive as sex partners for four years since they were ten years old. One of them now is pregnant. The prosecutors also failed to press charges of child sexual abuse. The suspects, unfortunately, were set free.
The illegal sex industry is at the center of this corrupt mind set. Its simple message is that anything can be bought – even the body of minor. The sad truth is that sex tourism, even in its most criminal form, enjoys political protection because it brings in foreign currency and generates revenues for local leaders, which allegedly, some of whom invest in the business themselves.Theres gossip about a mayor who promoted his city as a sex resort and was even chosen to become the country’s secretary of tourism.
What saddens me is that I know that it is harmful for a country to be considered a destination for sex tourists and I cannot think of a way to completely eliminate it. As Cullen(2011) has said: foreign travellers who are pursuing other, more legitimate motives like nature or cultural heritage, for instance, will be likely to shy from places tarnished by such a reputation, fearing for their own reputation.
According to what I have watched in the news, prosecutors in Olongapo City dismissed trafficking-of-persons charges against two US citizens, who had held two girls captive as sex partners for four years since they were ten years old. One of them now is pregnant. The prosecutors also failed to press charges of child sexual abuse. The suspects, unfortunately, were set free.
The illegal sex industry is at the center of this corrupt mind set. Its simple message is that anything can be bought – even the body of minor. The sad truth is that sex tourism, even in its most criminal form, enjoys political protection because it brings in foreign currency and generates revenues for local leaders, which allegedly, some of whom invest in the business themselves.Theres gossip about a mayor who promoted his city as a sex resort and was even chosen to become the country’s secretary of tourism.
What saddens me is that I know that it is harmful for a country to be considered a destination for sex tourists and I cannot think of a way to completely eliminate it. As Cullen(2011) has said: foreign travellers who are pursuing other, more legitimate motives like nature or cultural heritage, for instance, will be likely to shy from places tarnished by such a reputation, fearing for their own reputation.
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