Morality as a nation

At the grand alumni homecoming and 70th founding anniversary of the Arellano University School of Law, Supreme Court Chief Justice Reynato Puno talked about lawyers as moral practitioners.

Here are excerpts from his speech:

“Today, there is arguably no topic more exhausted than the issue of corruption both in the public and private sectors… Sociologists now condemn apathy as a malaise allowing the culture of corruption to grow in the country. Apathy is being replaced by something much worse – acceptance…

“Is this the state of the nation? Filipinos appearing helpless and silently accepting lawlessness? People writing off evil as acceptable? People content with choosing lesser evil?...

“This virus of surrendering to evil will become more deeply embedded in our society unless we embark on moral transformation to empower the people to say no to the prostitution of the people… We need to transcend self-interest to promote public interest… We need to translate self-absorption to acts of service to others…”

Not even the coming national elections will save this country unless Filipinos learn to put their foot down against the evils of corruption, especially in government. Filipinos have become so used to the idea of corruption and violence that they have come to accept it as part of every life.

We have become so engrossed with choosing our next President, Senators, congressmen, governors, and probably mayors that we seem to have forgotten that they do not make our society, nor our government. Many of the worst air disasters in history were the result of one tiny screw that has escaped the eye of aircraft inspectors. Not even the best designed structure will last if the foundation is not established properly. The foundation of our government – morality and accountability to the people – is suffering from a very serious structural defect. Every public servant, from the highest to the lowest in the organizational structure, has to instill in his conscience that sovereignty resides in the people and all government authority emanates from them.

How many times have we heard in the news about how our government officials have abused the privilege granted by the electorate to them? And how many times have we shrugged it off as just another piece of news? How many times have we found these news entertaining? Chief Justice Puno was right when he said that acceptance is much worse than apathy. It’s much worse to think that corruption is okay than to simply not care about it.

Many make fun of the fact that Singaporean newspapers put as their headline news or in the front page news about a simple theft. And why? Because news of these kind do not even merit a space in our newspapers. It is just one of those things that just happen. Theft doesn’t even merit a grave penalty under our penal laws. But Singaporeans consider theft as a very serious offense. We have learned to accept crime as part of our daily life. And that speaks very highly about our morality as a people.

Japanese leaders say sorry and resign. Our leaders say sorry and we say it’s okay. We accept the apology.

If lawyers should be moral practitioners, public servants should be much more. They should be moral crusaders. They have no right to flaunt their wealth when a large segment of our population is wallowing in extreme poverty.

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