Are we corrupt?

MANILA
Corruption in the past government appears to have been so rampant it makes one sick just thinking about it. Recent exposes about stealing the people’s money, crooked deals involving public funds, and plain abuse of power are so sickening in the stomach it’s hard to believe that such crookedness really took place.
But it seems it’s true.
Recent Congressional inquiries have shown witness after witness testifying to the mind-boggling theft of government money by a seemingly endless list of suspects.
Everyone who had held power, it seems, helped himself/herself to the public coffers. If you watched the hearings in Congress, you would find it incredible that officials who held high positions (and their lower-rank accomplices) just went on larcenous binges, making illegal deals right and left without any feelings of guilt.
What’s worse is that all the shady deals almost always involved the participation, or at least the tolerance, of Gloria Arroyo, her husband Mike and members of her family.
At this point they are all allegations. But the testimonies in Congress are credible enough for the public to conclude that what’s alleged was true and actually took place.
It appears that Mrs. Arroyo abused her presidential power not only to repress those who spoke and acted against her. She also abused her power to amass great amounts of money.
Which is something that, until now, I find hard to believe that she not only tolerated during her administration, but that she also engaged in herself? There are now reports that she knew that her husband Mike was involved in many illegal money deals but didn’t stop him because he had been instrumental in amassing the financial wherewithal to finance her presidential campaign. She was so obsessed with becoming President and staying there, she used all ways and means to satisfy her ambition.
Still, I cannot believe that she would, first, tarnish her own name and, more importantly, her father’s (the late President Diosdado Macapagal, who was an honest man), by allowing, and indeed participating, in questionable and illegal deals. Second, we all expected a woman President to be honest, in contrast to her ousted predecessor, Joseph Estrada, who was removed from office by People Power and later convicted of plunder. Didn’t we, and still do, believe that women are more honest than men?
Ah well, so much for traditional beliefs.
Mrs. Arroyo has been accused of participating in so many questionable deals and acts that it’s now hard to keep up with all the allegations against her. Suffice to say for now that if she gets convicted of all the charges against her, she would rot in jail for the rest of her life.
The recent allegations about widespread corruption involving several personalities in Arroyo’s administration beg the question: Are we a corrupt people?
Do we Filipinos have a special talent for profiting from crooked schemes and illegal deals? Why it is that corruption has been a continuing bane of Filipino society? Why is it that we Filipinos seem to get involved in illegal operations, not only in our country but also abroad?
Are we all corrupt? Or is it just people in government?
I find it hard to believe that only government people are corrupt. Did they suddenly become corrupt when they entered government service? How does an assumed honest person suddenly turn corrupt once he or she becomes a government official or employee?
My own theory, and my charitable conclusion, is that we may not all be corrupt but we are corruptible. We seem to succumb easily to the temptation to make easy money, to make the quick buck.
I ask myself the question whether I, too, would steal the people’s money if I got myself a government position, especially an influential or powerful one. While I know that stealing wouldn’t be my purpose in joining government, I know I would at least be tempted when the opportunity to steal and it will come if you’re in government, knocks on my door.
Many, if not all, Filipinos who enter government service, are in it to make money, to steal the people’s money, to get rich. So many people, when they have the opportunity, do succumb to the lure of easy and illegal money.
Why?
It doesn’t help that we’re a materialistic society, craving material possessions. It doesn’t help that we are acquisitive, wanting all kinds of bling-bling and other unnecessary and useless things. Why do you think shopping malls keep popping up within a few kilometers of each other in our country?
It doesn’t help that we’re a people who like to indulge in vices like gambling and other unhealthy and unproductive pastimes. It doesn’t help that we’re a people that prefer form over substance. We like to dress up and feed our vanity instead of feeding our brains. We prefer to go to malls instead of museums. We prefer the party scene to parsing sentences at libraries; to watch vacuous shows instead of reading serious literature. We are an unserious people who crave frivolous entertainment and who easily get bored with anything that require a modicum of thought.
We are a people who love the good life. The problem is we can’t afford to pay for the good life. We just don’t make enough money to be able to spend for the good life. We are a poor people. But we often live way beyond our means.
And so what do we do to save our vices and cravings? Damn right, we steal other people’s money.
We Filipinos have made stealing an art; we’re quite adept at doing it. We’ve invented so many ways to make easy money. It doesn’t matter if we’re in our own country or we’re abroad, many of us work hard to make the quick buck.
Many Filipinos are honest, and quietly and dignifiedly go about their daily labors and go back home to their families at the end of the day. It’s funny, when you’re honest and law-abiding, the thieves among us laugh at us for being stupid because we don’t know how to make the quick buck. The irony of living in our society is that if you obey the law, then you finish last, you always get the short end of the stick. Because you’re not smart enough to go for the quick, but illegal, buck.
That’s the story of the Philippines. Trying to make easy money however you can, often illegally because that’s the nature of wanting easy money.
This kind of piece in the media embarrasses Filipinos abroad because they say it puts us in a bad light. But if it’s true, you can’t blame the messenger. We can’t sweep our dirt under the rug.
Are we corrupt? You know the answer. But don’t be ashamed if you’re not one of them.*****