Corruption in the Philippines

Writing about the corruption which occurs here is very difficult. It is difficult because it necessitates being very critical about a nation and a culture which contains many positives. However to ignore this aspect of society would be to fail to paint a full picture.

Corruption here is endemic. According to the some sources the Philippines is the most corrupt country in Asia. Whether or not this is true I cannot claim to know but it is true that corruption permeates all of life here. Elections are rigged, officials take bribes and few people are held to account.

What I find really fascinating is the acceptance of corruption as being normal. Everyone here seems to accept that elections are corruptly run, corruptly counted and end up being won by those with the most money with which to bribe. But rather than being outraged most people just laugh about it.

Many of the Salesians here openly admit that they didn’t take a driving test; the examiner offered them to chance to pay a bribe to pass without taking the test, so they paid the bribe and avoided the test. Similarly before we went to renew our visas we were told that because some former students worked in the immigration office our application would be dealt with more quickly. No one here seems to see such practises as a problem.

In the classroom our greatest struggle has been to prevent cheating. Most of our students have spent much of their school life cheating their way through; homeworks are copied, notes are passed in exams when the teacher isn’t looking, and if necessary teachers are bribed to change the student’s results. When the high school students here were sitting their final exams, that students were talking during the exams was obvious even from a casual observation. So much is all this a part of life that when we challenge our students as to why they have cheated they really struggle to understand why we think that such practises are a problem.

The corruption here is motivated, I think, by various factors. A desire to buy or gain easy success is definitely one motivation. Another is that to be corrupt is not a social taboo; indeed to not be corrupt would be in many cases to put yourself at a disadvantage. However I think there are deeper reasons for this culture. Most of the corrupt practises which we have come across are not done out of malice and often not even for personal gain, rather they are the result of people trying to help each other out. Students pass answers in exams to help their classmates and teachers pass students too easily thinking it will help them in life. Immigration officials will fast-track the applications of those they know because these relationships are important to them. Often corruption comes about more because of a desire to maintain community than for individual gain. Likewise corrupt practises tend not to be challenged for the same reason, a desire not to create disharmony.

All this corruption does, of course, have a negative effect. I think this negative is that it ferments a belief that things are easier to achieve than they really are. If a student of electricity is allowed to pass without the necessary skills then maybe they have benefitted, and may the person who gave them an undeserved passing grade feels that he has helped the student, but would you want them to re-wire your house?

The disposition of most Filippinos and their tendency to favour harmony above justice means that social anger doesn’t generate in the way that it would and does in other parts of the world, but I can’t help wondering how much latent anger created by corruption, injustice and inequality, bubbles under the surface.