Building a Culture of Integrity and Excellence

Countless studies dealing on the determination of the

root cause of poverty in the Philippines have often pointed to
the deeply-rooted corrupt practices as among the main
culprits to our present social malaise. Treatises on that matter
have even went as far as identifying certain individual
motivations underlying acts of corruption such as, but not
limited

to,

underemployment,

dearth

in

information,

ignorance, greed, lack of concern, economic necessities, and

personal security, to mention a few. Institutional factors
spawning

such

nefarious

practices

also

exist

such

as

inadequate laws and regulatory measures, bureaucratic red

tape, lack of serious law enforcement efforts, and discretionary
powers exercised by public authorities.

Some of these studies, however, have pointed to the

following adverse effects of corruption: wastage of government
resources, as when the execution of infrastructure projects are
not in accordance with the approved specifications and do not
reach their projected useful lifetimes; low revenue collection,
as when bribes are paid in lieu of taxes in revenue collecting
agencies; tax evasion and smuggling; increases in the cost of
doing business in the country; cronyism which is the highest
form of corruption, expressed in cartels and monopolies that
reduce

industrial

competitiveness;

and

waste

in

the

development resources which postpones poor Juan Dela

Cruzs escape from poverty.

These

scholarly

inquiries

and

researches

notwithstanding, the man-on-the-street, the common tao,

the know-it-all bureaucrats, the holier-than-thou spiritual
leaders, the wily and cunning politicians, nay, the political

fence-sitters

and

kibitzers,

have

invariably

yet

oversimplistically attributed the state of corruption in the

country to such pervasive archetypal practices as utang na
loob and padrino systems, sige lang and bahala na
mentalities, culture of reverence to the powers-that-be, abject
poverty and materialism.

Each day, we see vivid images of vices and corruption in

the workplaces, in the streets, in the frontpages of the
newspapers, in the boob-tubes, and, mind you, even in our
own domiciles. Pejorative words such as lagay, kotong,
kurakot, dilihensya, patong, intelihensya, padulas,
and the not-too-subtle overtures like wala ba tayo dyan?,
pansigarilyo mo, akong bahala sa inyo, por da boys have
taken on less-than-derogatory connotations and, much to our
chagrin, have attained heretofore unimaginable levels of social
acceptability and tolerance.

Of late, eager-beaver journalists and celebrated media

personalities have been hot on the heels of government
officials who have amassed wealth allegedly beyond their
means, or of civil service employees who have been going to
the malls, restaurants and beer houses using governmentowned vehicles. Spy and hidden cameras have been put to
optimum use and abuse by the dogged paparazzi-like press
to the point of invading heedlessly even the privacy of
individuals -- a sacred right supposedly guaranteed under the
fundamental law of our land -- in the guise of exposing the ills
of graft and corruption.

But should we really put to the scourge and publicly

embarrass a few suspected grafters just to satisfy our
insatiable craving for persecution as well as our penchant for
trials by publicity. Arent we in the process swatting a fly and

hitting the carabao instead? Do we not realize the irreparable

impact such unjust public expositions violative as they are of
the constitutional presumption of innocence upon our
growing children, and upon our image as a people in the eyes
of the world?

If we should move on as a nation amidst a world of everincreasing challenges, it is but imperative that we now, as a
people, refrain from constantly finding our own faults and
gawking at our own imperfections, let alone our so-called
culture of corruption, and look beyond and fix our gaze on our
inherent opportunities and strength as a nation. For from the
shambles of cynicism and distrust, we can rise up like the
mythical Phoenix and build anew a national character that is
productive, constructive, unifying and strong, one that holds
on to its virtues than to its vices, and clings to the vine of

moral and spiritual values than to its overarching material and

pragmatic concerns.

When we are to veer away from the nauseating portraits

of graft and corruption, it does not and should not be taken to
mean that we shall altogether desert and forsake our struggle
or lower our guard on our fight to eradicate such a societal
malady. Far from it. On the contrary, we should be more
vigilant and proactive in our national crusade to combat
corruption at all levels, but this time, the thrust shall be
geared

more

towards

prevention

than

punishment,

or

discouragement rather than condonation by inaction.

In fact, we should not at all remain as passive smokers

unknowingly inhaling secondary smoke, that is, witnesses of
corrupt practices who merely opt to shrug their shoulders, gag
their own mouths or blindfold their eyes, in the face of

daylight

robberies

and

unjust

enrichments

being

perpetrated under their very nostrils. There is perhaps nothing

more degrading and humiliating for a morally upright person
than for him to turn a deaf ear or to look the opposite way
when acts of corruption are being committed by any of his
superior, peers or underlings with his full knowledge and in
his presence. The seeds of corruption, it must be stressed, do
germinate not only from the lush soil of overt acts but also
from the fertile grounds of apathy and lack of personal
concern. Indeed, to paraphrase an old axiom, for corruption to
flourish, it is enough that righteous men do or say nothing.

Indeed, the favorite breeding grounds of corruption are

not those places where there are men in complete cahoots with
each other, all or a great number of whom are willing to get
their respective shares of the bounty. Quite the reverse, it is
those places where one could pull off a heist and nobody

would get hold of the whistle and dare to blow the same
where corruption grows in great abundance.

Corruption, in truth and in fact, is not about something

confined

to

unexplained

palpable

acts

acquisition

of
of

plunder,

unlawful

and

wealth,

embezzlement,

malversation, misappropriation, fund misuse, fraud, stealing,

cheating, bribery, extortion or similar reprehensible practices.
It is something more than the physical wrongful disposition or
treatment of public money; it is more of a state of the mind
that cuts across the grains of our cultural psyche.

A person not predisposed to committing corruption may

be deemed to have committed it by indirect participation when,
by his silence or manifest inaction, he allows another to
perform and consummate any of its essential elements. Or an
employee who was not a party to any corrupt practices may

still be considered as morally responsible for such if he is

eventually benefited by any of its poisonous fruits -- no matter
how minuscule they may be -- or if he derisively looks at an
official caught with his loot in flagrante delicto and merely
blurts out nonchalantly: Gago, di kasi nag-ingat!

For us to be able to build a culture of integrity and

excellence, we, Filipinos, must collectively work for it, and with
great effort and a more positive outlook. We must, for once, try
to look beyond our political biases and prejudices and have full
faith in the capacity of our leaders to lead all of us to the
shortest and swiftest way to progress. Past experiences have
taught us that too much distrust and indifference upon our
duly constituted authorities have almost always pulled the
scales of our national progress down.

It is thus suggested that, for now, we should desist from

unnecessarily busying our minds with the thoughts of the
unexplained wealth stashed away by certain military officials
or that almost P400 billion pesos or nearly half of the
government budget is lost through corruption yearly, or that
the public sector employees provident fund is being gravely
mismanaged and the money thereof being squandered by its
top officials. We can do better than fretting about things which
we could not do anything about, or simply put, crying over
spilled milk.

Pretend to forget at this juncture about customs or

internal revenue officials pocketing large shares of duties or
taxes, or about some public works officials and engineers
compromising the structural integrity of newly constructed
roads which, after a few years and after spending hundreds of
millions of pesos for it, a great portion thereof would be

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damaged because contractors did not follow the technical

specifications for the project and instead paid a share of the
budget to said officials.

For the moment, why dont we just refrain from talking

about the wire-tapped tapes, the botched impeachment try,
the jueteng pay-offs, and the rest of the sensationalized media
stories which have catered to nothing but the downside of the
social and political spectrums. Would it be asking too much if,
in the meantime, we put behind us the fact that our country
has earned the dubious distinction of being the number eleven
most corrupt country in the world?

Just think about the brilliance and excellence of the

Filipinos. Owing to our skills and education, coupled with our
ingenuity, industry and honesty, the Filipinos have been the
preferred workers or employees by most nations of the world.

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In the United States, Europe and the Middle East, for

instance, millions of Filipinos have been deployed to various
industries and a great number of them have been entrusted
with top-level and managerial positions. Noticeably, Filipinos
have not only blazed a trail of economic success abroad but
have also revolutionized the various Filipino communities into
formidable blocs in the economic, social, cultural, and political
mainstreams of the countries in which they work.

Character-wise, the Filipinos have time and again proven

themselves to be a cut above the rest. We have myriad
accounts and voluminous documents of honesty at work
wherever Filipinos may be situated. Who has not heard or
come across the story of Filipino nurse Melitza Anne Chan, 27
years of age, who reported a bank error in her account. The
Saudi Hollande Bank in Jeddah had mistakenly credited some
10 million Saudi riyals ($2.6 million) in her account in

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February and detected the error only after Chan informed

them about it. The glare of gold obviously did not blur her
vision and eat up her moral fiber as to make her run away
with the money that she knew was not hers in the first place.

And what about the honest Filipino taxi driver in New

York City by the name of Nestor Sulpico who returned to its
rightful owners black pearls worth about $70,000. Sulpico was
earning only $80 a day for a 12-hour shift, and could have, if
he were tempted to be dishonest, profited much and extracted
himself out of the marginal existence that he was leading in
that American city. He chose the morally right option.

Think about our world boxing champions like Manny

Pacquiao who have successfully invaded the international
square jungle; Efren Bata Reyes and other great cue artists
who have lorded it over their foreign rivals and have earned a

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veritable niche for their country in the world billiards scene;

and Precious Lara Quigaman, the youthful Filipina lass who
recently bagged the Miss International crown in Tokyo, Japan,
along with other Pinay beauties who have been crowned in
other international beauty tilts before her.

Let us not dare forget the selfless efforts and sacrifices of

our soldiers who willingly and voluntarily served as part of the
peace-keeping force contingents in war-devastated Iraq and
East Timor; the hundreds of thousands of overseas contract
workers who have reluctantly left behind their families to eke
out a living on foreign shores and thus contribute immensely
to our economy; the rural doctors who opted to forego moneyspinning practice in the urban areas in favor of attending to
the medical needs of the marginalized sectors in our remote
barangays; the pitifully small number of lawyers who chose to
stay on and serve the Office of the Ombudsman despite the

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meager pay and great risk to their lives attendant to their

graft-busting functions.

Against the grim backdrops being painted by the

prophets of doom, the Filipinos are not a hopeless lot. They
have great innate potentials and resiliency to bounce back and
emerge from the rut they now find themselves in. Save for a
few scoundrels and rotten eggs here and there, the great
majority of the Filipinos have yet to compromise their culture
of integrity, honesty, adherence to truth, and honor and
excellence. Passive as they are, they are a force to reckon with
if only they are properly motivated and made to realize their
vast untapped collective potentials as human resources who
are capable of altering the present state of affairs and set into
motion the needed improvements thereon.

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In todays ever-changing global economic environment,

matters of public trust occupy the highest level of priority.
Integrity and excellence are the underpinnings for building
and maintaining public trust which are indispensable to both
nation-building and interrelations with other states. The
Filipinos have constantly shown to the world that they have
what it takes to be globally competitive as well as the positive
values which have earned them the trust and confidence of the
community of nations.

But to fortify further those intrinsic pillars of strength of

the Filipino race would by no means be an easy, trouble-free
task. Much is to be expected from the each and every
stakeholder in ensuring that extra efforts are exerted and the
full cooperation and involvement of all concerned are enlisted
to achieve the desired results.

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Rome, as they say, was not built in a day, and so is

building a culture not a simple puzzle that could be pieced
together and solved overnight. The good thing though is that
we are not taking off from scratch, considering that the
Filipinos have throughout their history as a people have laid
the strong foundation of integrity and honesty upon which the
moral and political structures of the nation firmly rest.
Besides, we have -- despite recurring fiscal constraints -afforded our citizens ample academic opportunities and
quality education at par with our more economically well-off
neighbors.

The trust and confidence reposed upon the overseas

Filipino workers by foreign employers are reflective of the kind
and quality of work they have been rendering and the kind of
work attitude they have been demonstrating to both their
employers

and

co-workers.

They

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are,

at

best,

living

testimonials of the good moral values they have imbibed from

way back home and their seemingly unending quest for
excellence and self-improvement wherever in the four corners
of the globe they may be found.

Ninoy Aquino was perfectly right when during his last

days on earth he said: The Filipino is worth dying for. Indeed,
the Filipino, for all his frailties and weaknesses, is worth
laying ones life for. He is a person built and moulded on a
culture

of

honesty,

truthfulness,

honor,

integrity,

and

hammered out of a tradition of eminence and the exacting

standards of excellence and brilliance. He is the epitome of an
upright and no-nonsense individual who would stop at
nothing to perfect his craft and at the same time earn the
trust of his fellowmen. Given the proper atmosphere and
ample motivation, he could be made to bring out the best in
him and outshine even his own self in the midst of adversities

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and harsh conditions. He is culture personified and his

integrity and excellence, once properly built within his system,
will be beyond reproach.

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