Too much corruption can kill you

Political corruption is the use of legislated strength by government officials for illegitimate personal benefit. Wrong use of government power for other reasons, such as being kept down by force of political contradictory and police cruelness, is not considered political corruption. Neither are illegal acts by private persons or corporations not directly involved with the government. An illegal act by an officeholder constitutes political corruption only if the act is directly related to their official duties. Perhaps it could mean the perversion of integrity.

           

According to a World Bank study, RP now achieved the label of “the worst among East Asia’s leading economies” and to that, we are now in the bottom of the list. The corruption here in the Philippines worsened and brought down during the administration of PGMA. The corruption we are now facing and trying to conquer is uncontrollable. The rich gets richer and the poor gets poorer. What’s wrong with them? They should help us not bring us down. People are poor to a huge scope because of extensive corruption. Those who hold political power is against people’s rights to achieve and keep up that power. A cycle has repeated over the years that passed by. The lingering process of it kept it stronger and stronger. These constant political crises in our country are due to mismatched form of government. We should just have a legitimate change, one that disperses political power of the president to the political party in power as in a legislative body form of government. The possession of governance can last anywhere between 1 day to decades depending the voters approval. Then, the Philippines should just be a centralized government giving regional governments more political power.

 

           

Corruption has become so established in the public life that it is well thought-out as normal. Transparency in government transactions and regular check up on projects are key factors in fighting corruption. Corruption always involves more than one person. On the whole, it involves secrecy. "If there is no love for your people from the ruling class that is when you get a banana republic."

Poll: Filipinos still divided on gov't campaign vs. corruption

Amid probes and plunder charges filed against government officials, half of Pinoys are still in doubt of the government’s ability to fight corruption.

“Only 54 percent see real progress over the past year in the current administration’s attempts to improve transparency and accountability and reduce corruption,” according to a poll conducted by the Philippine Public Transparency Reporting Project (PPTRP) revealed in a round table event in Quezon City Tuesday.

The poll was conducted between June and August this year, PPTRP added.

Though the polls result is surprising, Senate Blue Ribbon Committee Chairman Teofisto “TG” Guingona III said corruption can still be solved through transparent and efficient use of the public funds.

“Transparency and efficiency are possible only if those who hold the public purse are aware that the money does not belong to them. They are merely stewards of the funds and the public wealth is people’s money,” he said.

Interior Secretary Jesse Robredo, on the other hand, highlighted that the Department of Interior and Local Government currently pushes for a full disclosure policy among local government units. He said this can done through the use of website posting and media accessibility.

Another key finding in PPTRP’s survey is that majority or more than 90 percent of the respondents believe that the government needs to work closely with ordinary citizens and public sectors to increase transparency and reduce corruption.

“We need to build public transparency. We now have a window of opportunity with the new government being pro-transparency. We have to exploit this opportunity by involving the citizens,” said PPTRP Director Alan Davis.

Commission on Audit (COA) Chief Ma. Gracia Pulido-Tan revealed that the COA is organizing a Citizen’s Participatory Audit project that would encourage the public’s involvement in the gathering of data, validation of findings, monitoring of auditors, among others.

However, Tan said that for now, the commission can only accept complaints and leads on anomalous audit reports from the public through the citizen’s desk service.

Rodolfo “Jun” Lozada, a whistleblower and star witness in the multi-million NBN ZTE scandal, appealed that as whistleblowers and truth-tellers come out, there is a growing need for a community or a network to support them.

“Truth is such a huge burden, a fatal commodity. But do not bring the truth to the grave,” he said.

Earlier in July, the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee questioned the P160 million budget for the intelligence fund of the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office in 2010, which critics say may have been used as campaign kitty by the former administration.

http://ph.news.yahoo.com/poll--filipinos-still-divided-on-gov-t-campaign-vs--corruption.html