Editorial: Hindi ako magnanakaw

HEARING this pledge on national television in the precursor to full-blast election campaign brings to light our reality in a manner as subtle as a slap on our face.

A presidential aspirant is wooing us by pledging he will not steal and that he is not a thief; and gaining a good number of the people's confidence at that.

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How low have we allowed our government to sink in? Very low if a presidentiable has to swear he is not a thief. In an ideal society, being honest is a given in contests like these. But ours isn't ideal, it has never been. Instead, what we have is a deep-seated, deeply ingrained capitulation to corrupt practices such that we already have a word for it -- padulas, meaning grease money, an amount that will ensure that government bureaucracy will function like well-greased machinery. Sad.

In the Corruption Fighters' Tool Kit Special Edition 2004 of Transparency International entitled "Teaching Integrity to Youth," the kit gathers examples of how anti-corruption and integrity has been integrated into the school curriculum in the firm belief that education is central to preventing corruption.

"Even clear laws and regulations and well-designed institutions will not be able to prevent corruption, unless citizens actively demand accountability from government and institutions," the kit's introduction said.

Reading through the case study of Cambodia was like a walk-through of Philippine contemporary culture.

As reported, a baseline data was collected by the Center for Social Development in 1998 regarding attitudes toward corruption in Cambodia. The survey showed 84 percent of those surveyed were found to think that bribery is the normal way of life despite the almost universal agreement at 98 percent that combating corruption is important.

Was that talking about Filipinos? No, it was a survey on Cambodians.

But like what the 1998 survey found out in Cambodia, in the Philippines, the Social Weather Station 2008 Survey of Enterprises on Corruption, among others, showed that perception of corruption in government has not improved since there are still a lot of corrupt practices that are SOPs, and feelings that government can be run without corruption are weakening.

In fairness to the local government of Davao, the 2008 Survey of Enterprises on Corruption showed declining and low trend unlike the national capital region, where all the national government agencies and branches of government are.

Still, the dip in our city is not low enough and there is still that disbelief that government can be run without grease money.

There is then the need for fostering intolerance to corruption remains a pressing need. The seeds of which has to be sown among our children and youth.

It's going to be a long process, but we have to start now. The teaching of integrity has to become part and parcel of our education curriculum; there is no short-cut to this. In a country where corruption is already deeply-rooted the roots of corruption has to be taken out from the minds of the next generation and that means emphasizing the importance of integrity and accountability in everything that they and their families do.

Otherwise, our government can only become worse. For who will say what is excessive if our youth are not made to discern what integrity is all about. There's corruption all around them, from the neighborhood barangay tanod to the president, why should they grow to be any different?