MORAL DILEMMA WORKSHEET

SITUATION:

Michael had several friends including Roger and Daniel. Roger has recently met and
started dating a wonderful lady named Phyllis. He is convinced this is a long-term
relationship. Unknown to Roger, Michael observed them at a restaurant several days ago and
realized Phyllis is the girlfriend of his other friend Daniel.

Michael is deciding whether to tell Roger that Phyllis is in a relationship when he

receives a call from Daniel. Daniel suspects his girlfriend has another relationship and since
they and Michael share many friends and contacts, he asks if Michael has heard anything
regarding a relationship.

QUESTION/S: To whom does Michael owe greater friendship to in this situation? No matter who he
tells, he is going to end up hurting one, if not both friends. Does he remain silent and hope his
knowledge is never discovered?

PRINCIPLES: OPINION:
INTEGRITY: NAME OF MEMBER: Valenton

To cope up to the situation, there are several For me, if he will tell what he observed to both
ways to become a good, honest and moral guys, I think he will instill good friendship for
person and as a friend. In this case, integrity will sharing his love and knowledge. It is only up to
manifest; first thing is that Michael will tell what the guys on how they will feel and interpret the
he observed and realized to his friend Daniel situation. But for me, michael will still have a
even though he may hurt his feelings. Another good friendship to the guys. The situation was
thing is that he may tell to the other guy what he more on to the girl.
knows—that Phyliss has a boyfriend and that tell
everything clearly. Honestly, it would be so hard
for Michael to tell everything what he observed,
but as to what integrity implies, it is to become
honest and having strong moral principles; either
way, it is still hurtful to both parties and in any
ways. To tell what is right would be the best thing
that Michael can do.

OBJECTIVITY: NAME OF MEMBER: Kagalingan

Objectivity refers to absence of bias judgement,
restraint of influence to override judgement or
conflict of interest. A professional behavior
wherein it complies to relevant laws and
regulations and deviate from actions that would
disregard the rights or profession. Also a state of
mind that consider relevant ideas and task and
no other external influence. Michael as a person
must be objective and focus on the truth whether
it is desirable or not. Michael's intention
shouldn't be affected by emotions or other
external factors that is irrelevant.
PROFESSIONAL COMPETENCE AND DUE CARE
Professional competence and due care is the
ability of a person to show professional skill and
knowledge that would ensure that others would
receive great service. Professional competence
and due care mainly focuses on one’s profession
but it can also be applied to the situation. To
show professional competence and due care,
Michael must be able to confront Daniel and
Roger in a way that it would not make the issue
bigger. To efficiently solve the problem with due
care, Michael should meet his two friends and
calmly explain what he saw. He must convince
them that they are both his friends and he just
want to clarify things with them. Michael should
make them agree on an agreement where each
would talk and the others would listen and by
that they could professionally clarify and
understand each other.
CONFIDENTIALITY
For the case to remain confidential, Michael can
be the one to respectfully confront Phyllis as he
discusses with her about how her relationship
behaves with Roger. As a friend of Roger and
Daniel, he has to be sincere to Phyllis that the
I would directly tell Daniel, my friend, the truth,
the situation wherein love isn’t growing on the
same level of interest. Whether it would hurt or
impair the friendship, the desire for
righteousness is a must. Regardless of what
might happen the truth must set free, lies would
always be a shadow that disappears anytime
soon. As a friend and a person of judgement, be
intellectual enough to know that truth would
never go wrong especially if not influenced by
emotions , temper and persuasion to name a
few.
NAME OF MEMBER: Sarmiento
For me, it is Phyllis fault from the start because
why would she date someone if she already has a
boyfriend. I’m pretty sure that Roger wouldn’t
Phyllis is he knew that he has a boyfriend. If only
Phyllis were honest to both Roger and Daniel,
Daniel wouldn’t think of it as a long term
relationship and Roger wouldn’t suspect that her
girlfriend has another guy. It is better for Michael
to admits to both his friends what he saw to
clarify things. After all it is Phyllis fault for dating
two guys. The Person to choose should be Roger
and Daniel since they didn’t do anything wrong.
They should choose whether If one of them
would still trust Phyllis or both of them to talk to
Phyllis and leave her.
NAME OF MEMBER: Buhay
For me, it is the fault of Phyllis because in the first
place, she intentionally had a relationship with
Roger knowing that she already has a boyfriend.
Based on the plans of action that I proposed for
Michael, it indicates that it would be good for
fact he saw her together with Roger dating in a
restaurant several days ago was true. With this,
Michael must let Phyllis realize that her
relationship with Roger was an intentional
mistake because she is a girlfriend of Daniel.
Instead of suspecting this case to Daniel, Michael
should control Phyllis by giving her two safe
options. The first one is that she will sincerely
stop her relationship with Roger for the case to
end while the second one is that she will give up
Daniel as her first boyfriend and continue her
relationship with Roger. It is Phyllis who will
decide and do the necessary things for this case
not to become more complicated. Michael has to
be silent at first to his two friends and must
approach Phyllis at first.
PROFESSIONAL BEHAVIOR:
To make Michael act with a professional
behavior, he should just act with just an intention
to possibly save Daniel or Roger from a
destructive relationship.
Before making the situation possibly reach the
court, Michael can be the first to act to fix the
situation.
He should politely talk to Roger, since he is the
first victim here from Phyllis’ cheating.
Michael should just act with just an intention to
possibly save Daniel or Roger from a destructive
relationship.
Daniel cannot blame Roger here since
beforehand, Roger were not aware that Phyllis
was already in a relationship.
The one to be blamed here is Phyllis, since first
and foremost, she should already know that she
is already in a relationship.
Phyllis to do the necessary control as she admits
that it was a serious mistake for herself because
this could bring an emotional pain for both Roger
and Daniel. Regarding confidentiality, Michael
must first ask Phyllis why she let this serious case
to happen. Whether she wants to give a
necessary control or not, it depends on how she
will be convinced by Michael which affects how
Phyllis can manage her emotion as well as
deciding on how to solve her mistake that she did
to Roger and Michael.
NAME OF MEMBER: Teodosio
I think that Michael owe equal friendship to
Roger and Daniel in this situation, and that he
only intends to save both of them from a possible
destructive relationship.
Michael should tell Roger first the truth, because
in this situation, Roger would be the one who can
understand the situation more easily since he is
in a neutral position in this situation since he do
not know beforehand that Phyllis was already in a
relationship when they dated, and that we can
definitely say that Roger is in a neutral position
here.
Roger could be mad after knowing the truth from
Michael, but Roger can speak to Phyllis about
what he just knew. Roger might defend himself
about what had happened to keep himself
correct and it is fine to defend his moral here
since he’s in a neutral position in this situation.
Phyllis is the one to be blamed here, since she
should definitely already know in herself that she
is already in a relationship with Daniel when she
dated Roger.
It would be more acceptable if Phyllis would be
the one to first confront Daniel, since Roger is in
a neutral position in this situation and have
nothing to say sorry for.
It would now depend on Daniel if he should
forgive Phyllis or what should happen on the
future of their relationship.

By Michael revealing the truth, he just saved both

his friend from a foolish relationship. It may end
up both Roger and Daniel thanking Michael from
saving themselves from that foolish relationship.
Michael also saved both Roger and Daniel to a
more painful discovery if he just stood silent.