Republic of the Philippines

Department of Education
Region V
Bicol University
Legazpi City

TECHNICAL PAPER I

Submitted by:

Marga Joyce S. Sayson

AB English Language I-B

Submitted to:

Ms. Katherine Evasco

Professor
 DISCUSSION

Whenever the term “political issues” comes to my mind, it would result to a vast
overview of controversies debated within the political system. I can imagine a whole
array of hot topics that make up political issues. It could be a never-ending spill of tea
from different points-of-view. It includes issues related to the government or politics,
social, economic, environmental and other unsettled matters as determined by the
public. Political issues cross from the strictly political domain into social and cultural
issues if these are deemed important by the voting public and require action on the part
of the government. These may become important to the public for various reasons.
They may represent everyday issues such as corruption and child welfare or they may
be issues that become prominent in the public view without such a connection. Running
through online pages of what political issues the Philippines is facing, I can see how
corruption serves topnotch. Generally speaking, corruption is “the abuse of entrusted
power for private gain”. Corruption can be classified as grand, petty and political,
depending on the amounts of money lost and the sector where it occurs. Grand
corruption consists of acts committed at a high level of government that distort policies
or the central functioning of the state, enabling leaders to benefit at the expense of the
public good. Petty corruption refers to everyday abuse of entrusted power by low- and
mid-level public officials in their interactions with ordinary citizens, who often are trying
to access basic goods or services in places like hospitals, schools, police departments
and other agencies. Political corruption is a manipulation of policies, institutions and
rules of procedure in the allocation of resources and financing by political decision
makers, who abuse their position to sustain their power, status and wealth. Corruption
impacts societies in a multitude of ways. In the worst cases, it costs lives. Short of this,
it costs people their freedom, health or money. The cost of corruption can be divided
into four main categories: political, economic, social and environmental. On the political
front, corruption is a major obstacle to democracy and the rule of law. In a democratic
system, offices and institutions lose their legitimacy when they’re misused for private
advantage. This is harmful in established democracies, but even more so in newly
emerging ones. It is extremely challenging to develop accountable political leadership in
a corrupt climate. Economically, corruption depletes national wealth. Corrupt politicians
invest scarce public resources in projects that will line their pockets rather than benefit
communities, and prioritize high-profile projects such as dams, power plants, pipelines
and refineries over less spectacular but more urgent infrastructure projects such as
schools, hospitals and roads. Corruption also hinders the development of fair market
structures and distorts competition, which in turn deters investment. Corruption corrodes
the social fabric of society. It undermines people's trust in the political system, in its
institutions and its leadership. A distrustful or apathetic public can then become yet
another hurdle to challenging corruption. The worsening corruption has eaten up the
right of every citizen to good governance, freedom, decent life, and more importantly a
person’s dignity. Combating corruption is, evidently, important in its own right because
when it is left unimpeded, it will have an acerbic effect on a democracy and in the
general well-being of a nation.
 ANALYSIS

Corruption has always been one of the main concerns of all walks of life. Mostly,
corruption has been analyzed in the aspect of law, politics, psychology and sociology
and so forth. In fact, corruption is also an ethical problem. It should also be discussed
and studied from the point of ethics. Observed from the perspective of professional
ethics, corruption has violated the moral imperative conferred by the privileged status,
and violated the individual morality as well; Observed from the perspective of
institutional ethics, institutional deficiency has been a leading cause of corruption.

Relating the theories discussed in the subject Ethics with regards to the political
issues and corruption as per my choice, first is the Virtue Ethics Theory by Aristotle.
Aristotle said, "the virtue of man also will be the state of character which makes a man
good and which makes him do his own work well". Achieving a high morality is no easy
task because it requires a person to live the Golden Mean between excess and
deficiency. The aim is to perform the right action, with the right person, to the right
extent, at the right time, and in the right way. Although this is the objective, Aristotle
considered achieving this goodness as rare, laudable, and noble. Incorporating the
political issue, we, as humans, are aware of what is right and wrong, including the
corrupt public officials of course. The problem is they don’t always put into action the
awareness of what is right and wrong. To be moral, you must exercise your morality in
your daily life as you exercise to develop your muscles. It is not something that we can
easily comprehend and then apply by logic alone. It is something that we must live
spontaneously. He believed we can all be moral but most of us fail because we believe
that merely knowing about ethics will result in our being good. There is a wide gulf
between knowing and being. He argued this self-delusion is much like the physician's
patient who listens carefully to the doctor but follows none of the advice. He says, "As
the latter will not be made well in body by such course of treatment, the former will not
be made well in soul by such a course of philosophy". To achieve the ability to be moral
requires developing the proper character. To develop the proper character requires
developing virtues. To develop virtues requires creating and living with moral habits.
Aristotle said, "so too is it with the virtues: by abstaining from pleasures we become
temperate, and it is when we have become so that we are most able to abstain from
them". What begins as a great effort to give up in time and with effort and practice
becomes quite normal and is no effort at all. He also said, "we learn by doing them,
states of character arise out of like activities. It makes no small difference, then, we
form habits of one kind or of another from our very youth; it makes a very great
difference or rather all the difference". If we learn by doing as children and behavior is
the result of repeated actions, we are going to form habits anyway. Therefore, they
might as well be good ones.

Under the Nicomachean Ethics is Eudaimonia which means happiness therefore

In many ways, it seems that corruption is a necessary evil. After all, it does exist
in almost every society and is present among different races, religions, and
socioeconomic classes. News outlets often cite corruption as being the catalyst for
many social ills. Corrupt government officials use the money and power that comes
from being in an elected office to control the economic opportunities of those around
them. If a leader is embezzling money that would otherwise serve the citizenry, then
they are in fact meeting both definitions of corruption. The same could be said if a
leader is using government funds on projects that do not support the greater goals of
the community. Whether or not corruption can be ethically justified is not solely
determined by one’s definition of corruption. Instead, it is largely defined by the ethical
standard by which you are judging behavior. When evaluating the ethics of corruption, a
utilitarian would say that corruption is valid when it benefits more individuals in a society
than it harms. Utilitarianism works towards achieving the largest amount of good for the
greatest number of people. Utilitarianism doesn’t judge morality by a predetermined set
of ethical standards. There are no innate rights and wrongs. Instead actions are right
when they maximize the most good for the greatest number of people; actions are
wrong when they cause more pleasure than pain for the greatest number of people.
Utilitarianism measures all forms of pain and pleasure on a single scale. This measuring
scheme is one of the chief criticisms of utilitarian theory. So from a utilitarian point of
view, the results of corrupt behavior are determinative of whether or not corruption can
be ethically permissible. For example, the act of embezzlement can create great
pleasure for a single family. However, if many more families suffer without the money
that was stolen, then embezzlement can be said to generate more pain than pleasure.
On the other hand, if an individual steals money that would otherwise go towards a
government project that is already overfunded or if an individual steals a negligible
amount of money from multiple sources, there might not be a lot of pain that results
from the act. In fact, it is possible that no one would even notice. Corruption is not
always detrimental to societies. Especially within developing countries, corruption can
create a vehicle for economic growth. Corruption can lead to faster processing times
and can provide incentives for individuals to work harder in society. However, corruption
does have its limitations. Though it can lead to more jobs, it often lowers wages. This is
a viewpoint relating Utilitarianism.

The causes of corruption in the Philippines are rather a complex issue. But it is a
political feature in almost every nation on the globe that sits astride immediate or near
the equator. Corruption develops in communities where individuals don’t feel like they
can access what they need through legitimate means. Therefore, they are more likely to
turn to illegal practices. Government officials are more likely to abuse their power in
government structures that do not hold them accountable for their behavior. If officials
feel they will lose their power and influence through corruptive practices, they are more
likely to avoid corrupt behavior. By promoting basic standards of living across all sectors
of society, societies can work towards a day when corruption is no longer needed.