Zanti Alfonzo C.

Gayares
Category: Argumentative
Prompt: Is it better to act with integrity or loyalty?
Email: ZantiAlfonzoCGayares@gmail.com
Region: Southeast Asia

Integrity is a prerequisite of loyalty

The Philippines will be facing its election this year. It is viewed as the most significant form of the
democratic process in the country since we will be electing the new leaders of the country. From the past
years under the Duterte regime, it became focal to our perspectives the inhumane acts of the government
and the presence of rampant corruption, losing the sense of accountability and transparency in the
government. Among those issues, support and fanaticism became prevalent which gave me a reason to
choose this essay prompt.

In regards to this, from the previous administration of the Philippines, the country faced the loss of
freedom under the fascist ruling and inhumane leadership of Ferdinand Marcos. He was expelled from
office through the toiling masses, calling out for justice and peace through the People Power Revolution
way back in 1986. Concerning that, his son, Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. is one of the presidential
candidates for the upcoming elections. The Marcoses' daring to seek political office is still alive and well.
They even erected a tower of zealots to scream their names throughout the country and back their goals,
which were armed with historical revisionism and denials of their prior accountability. With that being
said, the Philippines today is dealing with issues of fake news and in which blatantly monopolize the
electoral process.

People could be swayed by fake news from memes and troll comments in a political setting, and believe
due to biased and unmotivated reasoning, which may lead to their affiliation being given to a political
figure who is unskilled and dishonest. People tend to support and become loyalists of someone who has
no integrity. The prevalence of fanaticism among the Filipinos today is indeed visible despite the given
factual information and in which we are instructed to take a serious note. A sound argument is that loyalty
is something that we give in the essence of integrity. We do not support flat-earth movement just because
we are loyal to it. It is something that deals with our logical perspectives. Integrity has something to do
with truth. And as we have the truth, we can achieve trust. We can conclude that integrity is a prerequisite
of loyalty.
Zanti Alfonzo C. Gayares
Category: Argumentative
Prompt: Is it better to act with integrity or loyalty?
Email: ZantiAlfonzoCGayares@gmail.com
Region: Southeast Asia
Same thing in politics. We cannot just support people because of their rhetoric, without them being
accountable for their actions. We have to stick with facts to trust and be loyal or to support such
candidacy. In the other way around, the idea of having loyalty means being faithful to something. This
constantly destroys the logic itself. We end up believing because of nothing. On the side of acting with
integrity, we are tasked to live and uphold the truth. With these arguments, I would probably live my life
with integrity rather than being faithful to something unreasonable. For my fellow Filipino voters and to
the rest of the people creating significant decisions, we are provided facts and instructed to think
critically.