CORRUPTION

by Peter Paul D. Eting

There is no doubt that Philippines is better now in some aspects, as I observed government is very sincere of fighting the corrupt practices in different agencies, in fact there are many high profile figure were sent to Jail or some have been removed to their offices, others are forced to resigned from their position. This is good news for the Filipino people especially to the next generation, who are anticipating better future and job in their adulthood.

Political analyst said that corruption can be a practice in any agency of any organization and it is impossible to stop it, but at least we still have hope, there are still peo

ple who are concern of their nation more than anything else, one of my professors said that the reason our nation is struggling is because of lack of patriotism, we are tend to be self-centred person and no time for other issues in government, our concern is only for our self and family, earnings and business.

Today our Philippines is facing a lot of problems, the successive natural and manmade calamities leave plenty of damages and counting years to recover, but gratefully for the international communities helping us to recover from devastating effect of our nation and people.

One of the trending issue today in the Philippines is the corruption of the lawmakers, they called it the Priority Development assistance Fund  (PDAF) this money is from the tax of people which is in the hands of the government, for the purpose of development in the different areas of the Philippines, it covers agriculture, livelihood, infrastructure projects for the benefits of the common people, the intention is very good but what makes it problematic, the people who are given the authority to implement this program was blinded by their personal interest, this private and public officials are having a manipulation of that money and this money was only went to the pocket of few individuals, this is violation of the Law and there is moral accountability to the life of people and the Nation.

The latest is the collision of the two branches of the government, when the Supreme Court declared that part Disbursement Accelerated Program (DAP) is unconstitutional. This DAP is created by the executive branch to have authority to spend the “savings” of the government for immediate needs of the people in times of  calamities and other unexpected disasters. The Supreme Court said that the congress has only the authority to declare budget based on their approval, the executive is the implementing body, the executive said they did nothing wrong because they use it for good of people (Yolanda victims), the Supreme Court answered that they are not saying that spending it is wrong but the way it was done was wrong process. Many people asked if it is moral to use the money without the approval of the congress. The executive says it is also moral if we will wait something happen before we take action during calamity relief operations? Others said that this is another way of pocketing the money of people? I am grateful to learn from your opinion, please give your comment.

Questions:

What do you think of the position of the Executive judiciary branch?

Did the Supreme Court fail to exercise their moral judgements?

                

Resources: (From my reading and watching)

ABS CBN news TV.

 PHILIPPINE DAILY INQUIRER

        

“Inequality in Thailand” by Weerawut Hong (Mini)

“Inequality in Thailand”

by Weerawut Hongsa (Mini)

When we think about inequality, we tend to think that the economy is the main draw. Inequality in the economy may lead to inequality in many aspects too. Information inequality in the economy of Thailand may come as a surprise to learn that the evidence shows inequality is shrinking. There is still a significant divide between rich and poor in this nation of sixty-seven million. Thailand’s Gini index[1] was thirty-ninth in 2010, according to World Bank data, making it lower than some countries in South East Asia. Income of Thai people is upper middle. 

Why do we still have the poor in Thailand? One of answers besides inequality of income is that it comes from the habits of the poor people, they do not practice saving their income, and they spend for parties rather than to save it for their essential needs in the future. They spend very wastefully for drinking alcohol and gambling. It is not that they have no income but they do not save money. If this habit is not fixed, Social inequality will continue to be there.

Jesus said “If you wish to be complete, go and sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me.” (Matthew 19:21, NASB).

But when you give a reception, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind… (Luke 14:13, NASB).

For you always have the poor with you, and whenever you wish you can do good to them… (Mark 14:7, NASB).

As Christians, God supports us to be generous to the poor, help them sincerely and generously. We should offer equal opportunity to the poor as others have. The poor people are always there in the world, because there is always someone who gets less than others. However everyone should have enough for their basic living.

Right now, the urgent concern of Thailand is not economic problems. The country's problems of the past 4-5 months were related to politics. There were anti-government protests, which caused the military to ruling the country. There is an issue of inequality of thought and having unequal rights and the using of democracy to destroy opponents. The majority do not care about the minorities at all. That is why people who do not have the opportunity to take their ideas and their entitlements rise in numbers, with the rise of the corruption of the ruling class. There is a substantial increase in opposition from many people, who drove out the democratic governments. I have seen that in Thailand, although there is the problem of income inequality, at this time thought equality issues and equal rights are more important for, development to continue of Thailand.

            As the Bible says, “Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind regard one another as more important than yourselves; do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others.” (Philippians 2: 3-4, NASB). 

We must be humble and respect others, do not seek the good things for ourself only but for the others as well.

Question:

Do you agree that equality of thought and equal rights are more important than equality of economy? Why?

Sources

K. Bird and K. Hattel, E. Sasaki. Eldis, “Poverty, income inequality, and microfinance in Thailand” http://www.eldis. org/go/home&id=64924&type=Document#.U9zvbhY56YU (accessed Aug 2, 2014).

Purnell Newley. The New Yorker, “The Red Bull Heir and Inequality in Thailand”, http:// www.newyorker.com/business/currency/the-red-bull-heir-and-inequality-in-thailand (accessed Aug 1, 2014)

The World Bank. Data: GINI index, September 12, 2013, http://data.worldbank.org/ indicator/ SI.POV.GINI (accessed Aug 1, 2014).

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[1] The World Bank. Data, http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SI.POV.GINI (accessed Aug 1, 2014). Gini index measures the extent to which the distribution of income or consumption expenditure among individuals or households within an economy deviates from a perfectly equal distribution. The Gini index, in which zero represents perfect equality and a hundred reflects perfect inequality.