The Underlying Roots of Corruption as the Vital Cause of Agony in the Philippines

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Since the president is the one who appoints members of the Philippine justice from the lowest trial court to the Supreme Court which often times dominated by politicians considered as the superior elites, it is not surprising that decisions made are polluted by political pressure. This only indicates that the Philippines has a weak justice system exacerbating corruption where the ruling class is not any more apprehensive of the law realizing that regardless of getting caught doing misdeeds, they can still get away from imprisonment. We have heard many immense controversies involving draft and corruption conferred by executive leaders such former president Erap Estrada who is now free and is the Manila city mayor. Depressing events like this give us the idea that perhaps all these administration campaigns against corruption are all for a show and nothing substantial takes off (Robredillo, 2012). That is why no matter what efforts and how hard we try to go after the corrupt officials, it does not seem to work. The ruling class has the power to influence the justice system to sustain and protect them from deprivation of their privileges. Thus, corruption will never be eliminated because those who commits are still incumbent in the government and that our justice system is not anymore a defense of the poor but those elites who wanted to pursue self-interests and protect wealth. As a result of the judiciary being not credible in enforcing the law against prominent and powerful politicians, many Filipinos are losing the hope of equal justice in the country.

With this being said, I, therefore, conclude that as long as our institutional system remains the same, the state is still captured by elites with the occurrence of spoil system, the flawed Presidential system still does not work accordingly, the political parties does not do its purpose and the justice system is still polluted by political pressure, we can never eliminate corruption and the effects that come with it. In other words, the only way to find the fundamental solution for corruption is to control, if not eliminate, the underlying roots. Ending the causes of corruption ends corruption and ending corruption ends the agony in the Philippines.

References

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