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[av_heading heading=’The Philippine political culture’ tag=’h3′ style=’blockquote modern-quote’ size=” subheading_active=’subheading_below’ subheading_size=’15’ padding=’10’ color=” custom_font=”]
BY OSCAR CRUZ
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Sunday, May 14, 2017
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THE ADVERSE political scene in the Philippines cannot but be the eventual product of a political culture that is neither acceptable to sound reason nor according to the standard mandates of ethical norms. There are some key lamentable and disturbing elements in the said culture.
1. In today’s political mental framework, a political office which is supposed to be a public trust meant for public welfare, has distinctly degenerated as a license for self-service as well as family gains.
2. The greed for the tenure of power and the wealth that it brings about has caused the deleterious transformation of social good into different social evils whose ultimate victims are the poor, weak and miserable citizens.
3. It is especially on the occasion of election when political transactions are made, when popularity – neither honesty nor competence – is the prime consideration, when votes are bought and sold as a matter of course.
4. Elections in the Philippines is still nonchalantly associated with the infamous trio of guns, goons and gold such that the commission of graft and corrupt practices in government becomes a matter of course.
5. In the national as well as political scenes, what really counts in having profitable government is political influence not personal ability, political clout not personal integrity.
6. The triumph of falsity over reality, the victory of injustice over equity, the presence of disunity instead of harmony, the phenomenon of amorality in contrast with ethical philosophy – these are politico-cultural realities.
7. So is it that a good number of both old incumbent and newly-elected public officials incite public disgust, alienates public confidence, hurts if not altogether destroys the hope of the general public for a better tomorrow.
No wonder then that the Philippines has long since remained a so-called “Third World Country.” Translation: The government remains incompetent. The phenomenon of poverty is a constant. The people live in patience. The socio-economic condition of the Country is stagnant if not progressively deteriorating even. Criminality is a matter of fact. Modem slavery – people is business, women are for sale, children already working – is a living fact.
So is it that the pitiful symbol of the “Three Monkeys” is no more in place, much less in order during these truly challenging times. The markedly adverse yet still standing Philippine political culture can only be gradually but certainly changed when the Filipinos begin again seeing, attentively listening , accordingly speaking and acting in their demand for integrity and industry among public officials, in their expectation of trustworthiness on the part of the government they in fact pay for in many different forms of taxes from birth to their death./PN
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