Republic of the Philippines

Far Eastern University

Manila, Philippines

Corruption as Major Reason of Poverty in the

Philippines

In partial fulfillment of the requirements of the

course Scholarly Inquiry

Submitted by:
Romero, Andrea Veronica
Zuño, Jealyn

December 2019
Intoduction
The most common definition of corruption that is used by World Bank, 1997, UNDP,
1999 and other organizations is the misuse or abuse of public office for private gain. Though
corruption is commonly present to the public sector, it also exists in other aspects of
governance, such as NGOs, political parties and even in private business sector. (USAID,
Anticorruption Strategy, 2015). According to UNDP, there are two classifications of corruption:
Spontaneous and Institutionalized. Spontaneous corruption is most certainly found in societies
wherein strong ethics and morals in public service are observed. On the other hand,
Institutionalized corruption is usually found in societies wherein corrupt behaviors are either
abidingly extensive or pervasive. Three K’s that causes poverty in the Philippines: Katamaran,
Kamangmangan at KURAPSYON (Abejero, 2011). There are many problems here in the
Philippines, but corruption is the major cause of poverty. A survey that was conducted by the
Office of the Obudman during 2013 showed that poverty exists partly because of corruption.
Corruption has always been connected to poverty serve as an invitation for massive
corruption, and corruption deepens poverty. From the research conducted by Rappler in 2016,
it was found that the Philippines lost hundreds of billions between 1960 and 2011 on illicit
activities. According to a 2014 report by Global Financial Integrity, the Philippines lost about
$410.5 billion between 1960 and 2011 on illicit financial flow. In current exchange rates, the
amount is about P19.34 trillion (without accounting for inflation).The vast majority of money
flowing illegally into and out of the Philippines over the 52-year time span was done mostly
through the wrong invoice of trade.
Corruption and self-serving political behavior is the cause of the current situation of a
certain country where in the current situation of the Philippines, major corrupt government
officials enrich themselves with the expense of the Filipino taxpayers. Without corruption, then
the money wasted from transactional and self-interest activities by greedy politicians and
government agencies could have been used for health, infrastructure and education. In the last
ten years, the Philippines experienced how the leaders from the past administration actively
promoted stealing, cheating, bribery, smuggling, tax evasion, dollar salting, and many more.
One example is the scandal which centers on Janet Lim Napoles, a businesswoman who says
she was part of a scheme in which dummy nongovernmental organizations were formed in the
middle 2004 and 2010 to siphon off $229 million for herself and her accomplices. The
overwhelming effects of corruption from the public officials and as well as the private ones is
very alarming and needs to put an action, because problems that comes from the top level of
the country like the government who exercises corruption, takes a domino effect with the other
sector in the society. Without the efficient budget needed for sustaining the fundamental needs
for the development and growth of the country such as education, agriculture, infrastructure,
healthcare, etc., this poor country will be trapped in its current position and the massive
corruption will not allow the country to move forward.
According to Punongbayan (2019), although the Department of Education (DepEd) will
still enjoy the lion’s share of the budget next year – as mandated by the Constitution – DepEd
failed to request enough funds for its resource gaps. For instance, DepEd wants to construct
nearly 65,000 more classrooms and hire 43,000 more teachers across the country. But they
secured funding for only 10,000 new classrooms and 10,000 new teachers and funds for the
Commission on Higher Education (CHED) are also being cut from P52.4 billion this year to P40.8
billion (22% lower).” according to Senator Ralph Recto, there are over 10,000 health personnel
under the Human Resource for Health Deployment Program (HRHDP) that could lose their jobs
because of the P9.39-billion cut in the budget of the Department of Health (DOH) (Paris, 2019).
He also that said apart from 7,107 nurses, 202 dentists and 597 medical technologists could
also become jobless by in 2020.
Certain types of corruption may involve money in particular. It may involve either gift
giving or influence-peddling. It can also come in the form of future benefits. Through this type
of corruption, the boundary in the middle of corrupt and non-corrupt behavior becomes thin.
For an instance, the act of giving a gift to a public official as a token of appreciation for the
services done. In some cultures, this action may be ethically excused. Laws and definitions of
corruption with regard to this become bound culturally. In the Philippines, Presidential Decree
46 (1972) did not allow gift giving to public officials and employees. However, despite the law,
the gift giving is still practiced since this habit has been embedded in social norms.
Body
Corruption affects the education system. It expands the expense of education in nations
where corruption is playing a significant job in the recruitment and advancement of education.
It affects education greatly since all the funds that should be used for providing educational
needs are being kept to the pouches of the corrupt officials. Education as one the fundamental
human right of every individual that is needed to be focused on however, problems about
corruption has identified as one of the obstacles to the fulfillment of basic right of education of
the children and becomes a hindrance for millions of children to attain this right. Education
serves as a major driver for individuals’ personal and social development. As the corruption in
the government affects the education sector, lacking of budget for the improvement and more
opportunities for education materials as it affects the quality of education and also the
reliability of academic research findings; (Transparency International, 2013).

Corruption is a continuous problem in our country. Every year, we are very much aware
of having multiples of reports with regards to corruption. However, there is a way wherein we
can avoid this illegal practice. We should elect people who have principles and values. People
lacking morality and ethics causes corruption. Therefore, anyone who lacks morality can
corrupt. So if we are to put a person who is not fit to be in that position and that we are aware
that he or she lacks morality, we are likely to expand corruption and be it a problem that
cannot be solved. Avoidance starts with us. The increasing numbers of the contracts and
agreements between rich foreign countries causes corruption. The less developed countries like
the Philippines is have also close economic relationships with rich foreign countries. Corruption
lessens the effectiveness of development especially in less developed countries. According to
the European Union, 2015, the extent corruption, illicit financial flows and the wide
mismanagement of public financial resources negatively affects the opportunities for
development and progress of such countries. Foreign companies bribe local government
officials in the Philippines. One of the reasons why the poor countries are getting poorer is also
resulting from foreign meddling and foreign bribery. The relationships between foreign
companies results to bribery. One evidence is that, worldwide, bribery alone is estimated to
involve over 1 trillion US dollars annually. Because of the gaining state contracts and other
advantages, the Philippines is manipulated by foreign companies.