The Phenomenon of Corruption

CORRUPTION 
in the manner with which we use it 
in the National Dialogue 
as citizens 
is usually implied to be 
a political malaise. 

Thus,
that same word, 
when in the forums of the Republic 
the issue of the popular will 
as regards corruption 
is - in every manner - heard,  
bears with it 
this weight of civic belief - 

that corruption 
is "political".

And so - 

Our genuine representations in the State 
whose particular politics - must - be relied upon 
to hammer and craft a policy on this matter (of corruption)
find themselves cast on the same boat 
with the disingenuous. 

Without the public trust, 
the politics of the Republic can not work 
in the manner it is supposed to work. 

   (Because 
   the public interest 
   - is - 
   this public's interest.)

And dirty politics 
will indeed 
creep into the Republic 
to cheapen the regal mantle 
of public service - 

the public 
and the Republic 
be damned.



So what is corruption? Certainly our Nation must consider this issue as an event - for the life of our Nation is more permanent than the Phenomenon of Corruption. And this is the truth. 

We were not always overly anxious about corruption till it became a life threatening sickness in the Republic. 

Poverty and corruption seem to be in a death spiral because the labor of our Nation translate not or is either dissipated or ignored by the unsavory politics that - we, the people - are supposed to own (i.e. exercise a proper civic ownership) in this Nation. 

Were we not a participatory democracy, everybody should be free to exculpate political responsibility from the people (and divest popular government of all its virtue). 

AND were we not a Republic, that same "freedom" (to willfully deny the character of our citizenship its first principles) may be a right invested forever in the "citizenry".

That the politics of the free 
belong not to the free 
and the right of its freedom 
is a political exercise 
of no one.

But that is not who we are. 

The truth for this Nation and its Republic is - if corruption were indeed political (and there is nothing to be done about it), then we are all corrupt. This makes us all responsible for the Phenomenon of Corruption.

Corruption is political. Therefore, what troubles it brings to our politics is our common concern. 



Political freedom - is ensured -
by the right to exercise its - expression -
- responsibly, purposefully, and honorably - 
in a participatory democracy, 
as citizens equally, 
and with our representations in government, 
knowing well - we are together - 
across our generations - to the last -
engaged 
in a Republic undertaking. 

Political devolution that is the exercise of our national communities as LGUs makes no sense if this power of popular empowerment was intended only for those who use it in a manner that is corrupt  - politicians of this stripe neither serve, nor sow, nor build, nor burden themselves with the weak and powerless, but only seek to reap. How do we make sense of our political freedom with theirs?



There are no good or bad politicians, politics was never a vocation - in and of itself - in this Republic, only public service.

And so, who we consider as our politicians are actually our public servants, whether good or bad, especially those who - we affirm - as an Electorate - in their Executive and Legislative seats of service - who are in various ways, skilled in politics. 

Whatever platforms and initiatives these elected officials in the Republic State shall represent - receive our mandate in the elections that affirm them - because they represented the matter well - in the public forums of the Republic.

BUT of the good ones, let is also be said - that they have won their mandates - because their agendas are derived from a heart that listens to what is real in the hearts of the people - and so serve to carry them out, their politics is the art of the real - real service, real needs, real people.

So in politics, there are those who are skilled in its exercise - living with and alongside the people - and also those who believe that politics may be exercised without a heart of public service. No one is a politician like these politicians. And no politics is dirty that represent what is sovereign in the Filipino people. 

We have truly dedicated public servants serving in our midst everyday, some of them exercise in our behalf, the politics of State - to make real what in the election we have affirmed in them - as a matter of policy. 

Corruption is not a political malaise - in them.

Corruption is what grows forth in fields of County where the laborers in the Nation become scarce. 

It is not a weakness in our civic spirit, but a failure to appreciate what is true forever in our common citizenship; a failure to recognize the tares from the wheat.



Legislating corruption will seem an impossible task without apprehending how Law may serve to confine its specific manifestations in the life of our national communities. 

Where our Justice system and juridical thoughts be led to suspect that corruption is ONLY political, it shall defer the matter exclusively to the Executive and Legislative as a matter of institutional self-maintenance. 

But the truth is, corruption affects all Filipinos in a very real way, producing poverty where before there was none and despair where poverty have for so long persisted - poverty that registers as a national security concern. 

Why is Justice herself (as she is established in this Nation) not impelled to act? 

Perhaps, we need an anti-corruption law. I personally think we do.

However, with our lawmakers and leaders saddled with the enormity of the political scandal wrought by Janet Napoles, it seems there is little time for it.



Public funds forever retain a public nature. 

Citizen Napoles should have realized the aforementioned fact and her personal freedoms should have responded accordingly. 

Any Court in the Republic may convict her for the misuse of the material representation of the spirit of our coming together as a Republic - that those taxes and all such proceeds that symbolize the parity of our common fortunes as one Country and one Nation - were never hers - nor were they the possession of those who authorized their individual disbursements - for the law recognizes theft as a crime. 

But no Court save the Justice of God in both individual and collective Judgment may convict her for the omission with which she first implicated herself and caused her to willfully commit this quite epic public disappointment we now witness unfolding in the life of our Nation - a transgression against her freedoms which are those same freedoms defined by her citizenship - which is that same citizenship that we are all responsible for - upon the Liberty of Country as we know it - because as a citizen, it should have been made well known to her soul that to bear the burden of our Liberty is to share in its light. 

These days, pending the conclusion of the Legislative inquiry, she stands a very good chance to lose her freedom. Indeed, the freedoms that bless are not the freedoms that curse.
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Personal Reflection

I feel, as I know most of us do, the enormity of the loss inflicted by billions of pesos not just in the material but also in the spiritual - for the taxes we all pay - are always - more than just their material worth. 

The permissiveness of it all confounds minds and crushes hearts. It sets us back years. And it affects lives in the millions, afflicting the Nation as a whole.

I do not hate Janet Napoles. I hate what she did but would never wish for anyone, the predicament she now finds herself irreversibly embroiled in - so full of betrayals, distrust, and seething malice. 

No amount of money in this universe is worth the value of good and simple, happy living. Wealth comes naturally to a free and happy people - AND this is who we are. 

AND this is why we are a Republic, to make it so.

My observation as regards the Legislative inquiry is first and foremost, as an aid to the work of sustaining the living law - public funds deserve better protection and this shall require the aid of Law.

To move the Nation forward with the times, we should also seek to better understand and realize - within each ourselves - the citizenship which is our heritage and the freedoms we are responsible for - because of it, that keep us free. 

Because in a way, we are each responsible for Citizen Napoles - not for what she did, but for who she failed to become.

20110504

Citizen

My name is Filipino citizen.

The name of my nation is Peace.

Peace means, "we belong".

My work is Freedom.

My ambition is called Happiness.

My calling is known as Truth.

My name is Filipino citizen.

My family name is called Endless.

It means, "I love".

My Country is called Promise.

The land of my fathers is called Bountiful.

The name of my city is Friendship.

The name of my religion is Sacred Life.

My God is called Beautiful.

Beautiful means, "We are one".

My government is Service.

The name of our leader is Servant.

It means, "Great Soul".

---<--@

PHL in the ICC: Strengthening Asia's Posture on Justice and Human Rights

Judge Sang-Hyun Song (Republic of Korea), first Asian President of the International Criminal Court (ICC), in an article printed on the opinion/editorial page of the Daily Inquirer dated around February 28 or March 1, invited this Republic to ratify the Rome Statute (adopted in 1998 and joined by 114 nations).

I should like to voice out through this post my unwavering support of the above invitation:

This one Republic of the Filipino people should move to ratify the Rome Statute and officially join the ICC where I believe we can make a good contribution towards strengthening Asia's posture on Justice and Human Rights.

YEA. It think now is a good time.

(Too, I think it would have been better if OBL had his day at the ICC. The past is the past however and the issue of paramount concern remains a conclusive as well as a comprehensive end to this War on Terror.)

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Taxation is an often misunderstood subject. Of the three elements of Country, the burden of taxation belongs to the nation.

It belongs to the people to share this burden.

Because the public funds that are being constantly replenished through the activity of taxation belong also to the people. That means us, my fellow Filipino compatriots.

It is our representative Congress that holds the purse strings of government.

It pays for all necessary government services, it builds public infrastructures, and it helps to enrich the Common Market.

It even pays for the upkeep of our laws.

The Republic government through its institutions in the executive sphere are intermediaries that facilitate and enforce the process. But the benefits of sharing the tax burden must always return to the national trust - or at least, it always should.

It is a good thing to know that the government has been busy in this regard. It was recently reported in the news that tax targets are all being met. This is good news.

Part of the work to diminish corruption in our Country is to restore our common confidence in the public trust.

If we are to reconstitute these

social contracts that keep the peace and comprise the civic order our national communities, we must as individual citizens begin by learning how to once again place our confidence in these national processes.

Taxation (which drive forward the economy of the national trust) is an unmistakable litmus test in the fight against corruption.

We can gauge it truly by its visible, natural, material results.

But it really must come from we, the people, first.

It

requires a certain sense of moral bravery and personal integrity to discharge our tax duties as citizens as well as to responsibly receive these taxes from the citizenry as public servants in the government.

It is first and foremost something that is done out of a sense of personal justice.

However, these duties are mutually safeguarded also by the laws of the Republic to preserve the interests of the common good of the people.

That other people seem wanting in this duty, whether factual or perceived, whether least or great, alone or with others, is not an excuse to fail or to fall short of the civic virtue required of our common citizenry in the sharing of the tax burden.

Or to willfully break the laws that are the foundations of our social cohesion as a nation.

Also, the personal generosity of those individuals, who out of their great patriotic sentiments, go above and beyond, and therefore, apart from what is ordinarily expected in the actual sharing of this burden of taxation must also be appreciated and the spirit of their philanthropy promoted and remembered.

For what goes above and beyond the ordinary requirements of taxation in the building of the peace of our nation belong to the realm of charity and sacred duty which

transcends the realm of civic duty and fills another vital economy - that of divine grace.

The yoke that we wear now is the yoke that this nation also shares with God. It is

the double yoke of which Jesus spoke of in the Gospels. Because the burden of the national undertaking is one that we also share with God Who everyday fights for us with and through His grace.

It should be light to those who know what particular love of Country is required by this, our common Republic effort.

We do not live anymore under the pain of a colonial yoke, nor are we anymore completely asleep and under thrall of any foreign power.

We do not live in a perfect world. However, w

e can no longer use any of these ghosts of shadows past to justify those present illusions we ourselves tend to create that we - both in the Nation and in the Responsible State - are not ultimately responsible for this Republic undertaking.

Because we are - each one of us.

The pain of all our poorest Filipinos are all too real. The simple truth is that their lives matter and matters the most because i

t shall be part and parcel of our Final Accounting as a nation.

I wish to congratulate the BIR and Commissioner Henares for their brave efforts.

Let us also remember Marcelino Yap, the BIR official who was gunned down in Antipolo last February in the line of duty. He died constituting the necessary reforms in his office to facilitate and expedite the collection process.

May justice be served here and without delay.

---<--@

OBL is dead. Good.

Because human lives matter - no matter how different, no matter how similar we may be. It matters we are free.

The world changed after September 11.

All the world felt it. We didn't want it. Humanity was set back 10 years. Now the world is changed once again.

What did terrorism ever achieve?

Did it feed more hungry mouths? Did it shelter more needy families? Did it gain more for justice than it took out in war? Did it lighten the common burdens of our nations? Did it safeguard the ideals of the youth? Did it open the way for more safety and more prosperity?

OBL is dead. Good. Kudos to you, America. Kudos to JSOC and the SEALs.

Now the world is changed once again: We can now ask ourselves the question denied us 10 years ago, "what do we - those who desire peace - want?"

Because this time, its not about OBL. The tide has turned.

On September 11, everybody became one heart with the victims. They were from many nations, including mine. And the world lost 10 years worth in war seeking for justice.

Many other nations have suffered the loss of many other lives and promises in the process.

Now justice has been done, we can be one heart again and set the time forward toward peace.

Peace which is an end to this very difficult war. Peace which will bring the needed respite to our one family of nations.

When this happens, everybody wins.

And it will be 9/12/01 over again.

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Mabuhay ang Amerika!

Mabuhay ang Pilipinas!

God bless all our nations.

As a counterpoint to the death of OBL: As far as these things go, my honorable compatriots, let us always bear in mind and heart that remembrance holds its eternal vigil (here in our heart of hearts) only for the sake of those whose lives and promises now rest with their hopes entrusted to the cause of Peace and of Sacred Life (which is Country and God respectively).

No nation on earth can ever be truly and meaningfully sustained in its own soul by the evil inspiration of war criminals and mass murderers of whatever particular creed or race.

The truth tends to always break free of the limits and confines of evil inspiration.

And those of my own Christian religion knows this with an understanding of faith most especially in this season of Easter: Did not that tomb, my beloved brothers and sisters, sealed shut by an unimaginable weight of evil intention, literally explode on that first Easter morn?

Victory belongs always to real heroes, those who though vulnerable - least to great, known or known to God alone - even in the midst of great adversity remain faithful and true to their own common humanity:

Defender of the People

To the Lion of Pansjer -

The resounding clash
of steel against steel,
and the clamor of battle
was first fought
in the quiet of the night
and in the prayer of the heart
that rises like the sun
to bring forward the hopes
of your orphaned nation
and restore upon them
the guardian peace
of the Responsible State.

The devouring foe
with relentless tenacity
have only succeeded
in establishing
in the hearts of your people
a strong desire for solace
and a shelter away
from the wilderness
of their wandering hearts;
a dream that was born
from the hope that
through battle
and through loss
you have triumphed
to maintain
not for yourself,
Amer Sahib,
but for your nation.

You are certainly
most cherished in memory,
noble commander and
defender of the people.
---<--@

Ahmad Shah Masoud, the Lion of Pansjer, a true son of the one Afghan Nation (19530902-20010909).

So let us say, "peace be to Afghanistan of the one family of the nations of Mankind".

20100915

I am carrying this post over from My Planet Annelies -

Burden of Taxes

(1) Taxation is an inevitability. Every endeavor of Country require it. From taxes, the temporal life of the responsible state is preserved and the necessary governance of the nati

on assured.

(2) Taxation is an integral part of the national dialogue. Hence, no true citizen can risk to remain ignorant about this fact of our national life. Because without taxation, none may claim the right of representation in the Republic forums.

From this act begins each and every broader participation in the national l

ife.

Therefore, our individual willingness to obtain from God the national success must also be adequately matched with the responsible paying of the legally required taxes.

(3) Taxation is a burden. It is a

complicated matter to be sure. And because it is so, there are whole agencies of government specifically dedic

ated to make sure that this necessary burden of taxation is one that is equitably shared by all.

For the burden of taxation is a responsibility undertaken by the nation as a whole. However, the sharing of this burden is the duty of every individual citizen.

Too, (4) taxation is a debt. Payment of this temporal debt is a civic responsibility that we owe to each other across all of our generations. Because nothing on this earth of ours can ever become built without this necessary participation.

If we are to help build a better Philippines, it is

vital that each of us become well acquainted with the actual work of helping to build a better Country. And there is no better place to start - as burdensome as it may seem for us today - than in how we pay our taxes.

What is praiseworthy in our Philippines, my fellow Filipino compatriots, as a perennial undertaking of Country is this - prosperity and life - both in their measures, abundant and lasting.

Therefore, if we are to become responsible for this hope, one to another, we must know that in the final accounting of things, taxes indeed is as necessary to our human condition as death. For we are each intended by purposes much, much greater than ourselves to build

and then to be re-built.

PNoy knows this. Now, you kn

ow this as well, O my beloved nation. By our giving, we shall set ourselves free. This is true for always. And this is true with taxes as well.

So say you with me, shame on tax cheats!

And then report them here: http://perangbayan.com/

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Mabuhay ang Pilipinas! God bless us all.