Malversation of public resources

Our public resources include not only money but also time. Senators, congressmen and
other public officials could misappropriate millions or even billions of public money for
their own interest. Furthermore, they can also misuse the hours or years they are
supposed to be utilizing on meaningful actions. Unfortunately, some or most of them are
just wasting the time given by the people to them to do their job well.

The nation’s money is robbed; our country’s precious time is also corrupted. People are
asking what our congressmen are doing all those years of their term? Have they
enacted several meaningful laws that can make the Philippines a better nation or have
they only wasted their time in the house of congress?

But this corruption of time resource is not only committed by the government officials in
the higher position. It’s also committed by many employees of the government. Have
you seen government employees going home and leaving their office earlier than 5pm?
Have you seen any of them doing meaningless tasks in their desks rather than
dedicatedly doing their jobs to serve the public? Well, tell me if they are rarely seen in
the government offices of the Philippines.

2. Abuse of power and authority

Not only they steal the money and misuse the golden time of our country, but they also
abuse the power and authority vested to them by the people and by the constitution.
The abuse of power and authority is actually unlawful or illegal. In other words, they are
punishable by the law. It’s unlawful for public officials to use their authority for making or
favoring government contracts that are only for their self-interest rather than for the
interest of the public. The law also prohibits public officials and employees to accept
material gifts from any person or organization in exchange of a grant of government
permit or license.

But don’t you know that the common citizens can also be guilty of abuse of power?

The power to vote is granted to us by the constitution. It’s our duty and authority. Alas,
many of us are abusing this power. Both vote buying and vote selling are illegal in the
Philippines. However, many Filipinos are still selling their votes instead of making the
right vote that can change the future of our nation. In other words, many voters can also
be considered as abusive to their power – the power to vote.

3. Tax evasion
Corrupt politicians steal or misappropriate our public fund. But tax evaders are stealing
the public money before they can even reach and enter into the public fund. Taxes are
for the public, and not only for any private individual to keep. Filipinos have the duty to
pay their income and business taxes due. Although their taxes might only go to the dirty
hands of the corrupt public officials, it’s unlawful to evade paying taxes.
Because taxes are for the public, tax evasion is tantamount to stealing the public fund. If
the public officials are stealing money from the public treasury and if the taxpayers are
also keeping for themselves the tax money before they even enter into the public
treasury, then what will happen to our country? With everybody following their self-
centeredness, our nation can never progress.

I feel compassion for the Filipinos who are paying taxes more than they can afford.
Indeed our tax system is old, and it’s already giving nightmares to small taxpayers who
are experiencing the high cost of living in the Philippines. Imagine if you’re an employee
who’s earning a basic salary of P25,000 a month and your basic monthly expenses is
P30,000. Since your salary is not exempted from income tax, you’ll always suffer from a
monthly deficit.

For the government to fight tax evasion, our tax laws should be amended to increase
the minimum income that is exempted to income tax. It should be adjusted to our
current cost of living so that taxes can become affordable and Filipinos can become
cheerful taxpayers.

And more importantly, our government should focus on running after the large
taxpayers who can actually be corporations owned or partly-owned by the same
politicians who are stealing the public fund. These monstrous politicians steal money
from the public fund and at the same time evade taxes before they can even go to the
public fund. It’s a double form of corruption, isn’t it?