Are we a nation of cheaters? It seems we never run out of news about cheating in the Philippines. Way back then, the perception was that only government officials and employees were prone to cheating.
Fast forward a decade. We shout in the streets against cheating – everyone else cheats, but us. Really? Is that so?
Cheating at the Macro Level
What a difference a year makes.
In 2009, the Philippines was the sixth most corrupt country in Southeast Asia out of based on the PERC scorecard. In 2010, the score has changed for the worse – to the fourth most corrupt country in Southeast Asia. The hopeless optimists will be glad to point out that the rank is better than that of 2008 when the Philippines was seen as THE MOST CORRUPT COUNTRY IN SOUTHEAST ASIA.
You can read the executive summary here:
Note the PERC’s outlook on the Philippines:
There will not be much headway in reducing systemic problems like corruption and bureaucratic inefficiency, especially in countries like India, the Philippines and Indonesia. In most cases, what you see is what you will get. Where there will be changes for the better are in cross-Strait’s commercial relations between China and Taiwan and an emphasis on cooperation between the major powers of Northeast Asia (China, Korea and Japan).
noynoy - wrong on corruption - 'told you so
I am not surprised by the PERC consulting groups assessment because it was the same assessment I made when I said Noynoy is wrong on corruption. Administrative reform measures can only do so much – and are ineffective in the face of systemic corruption.
Given the plethora of laws and talks about law enforcement, and the number of law enforcers – the Philippines is still in the lowest the rankings of Transparency International. While the Philippines CPI rose from #141 in 2008 to #139 in 2009, it makes one weep to see where the Philippines’ ASEAN counterparts are in list – South Korea at #39, Malaysia at #56, Indonesia at #111, Vietnam at #120!
In the case of the Philippines, corruption is no longer petty but systemic as well. Therefore, administrative reform which focuses on “the strict enforcement of anticorruption laws on one hand, and on the other, the provision of “sufficient means” for government employees to be able to fend for their families. ” IS NOT ENOUGH, does not address systemic corruption.
To paraphrase Klitgaard – “When corruption does become systemic, as it is in the Philippines, the usual anticorruption measures are insufficient. Not obsolete, to be sure: there will always be a need to raise consciousness about corruption’s costs and to make the institutions of state and market less vulnerable to corruption. But we also need new thinking about new modes of action by new sorts of actors that can faciliate joint efforts to subvert corruption”.
And now, we have another rehash from Noynoy – ““We have good laws [that punish and prevent graft and corruption]. All we need to do is enforce those laws,” ” – WTF, it’s a sirang plaka that just wouldn’t give up till you get a sledgehammer and smash it to pieces.
Noynoy is right on the issue of administrative/institutional anti-corruption measures – but so is everyone else – that means Gordon, Villar, Perlas, and all Pinoys who have felt the brunt of petty corruption. For short, Noynoy does not have a monopoly of the corruption issue.
To reiterate what I said then – it is not enough to implement reforms, the existing relationships that make up the socio economic foundations of Philippine society need to be addressed and changed so that more economic opportunities are available to the widest number of citizens thereby decreasing the systemic pressure to resort to corruption.
Cheating at the Micro Level
We are so quick to take offense about corruption in government And yet we take a lot of other things for granted, for example:
We Cheat In School
It doesn’t matter – elementary, high school, college, Masters – we cheat.
We cheat in the board exams – not just in the nursing board. Actually the nursing board is just the latest casualty. The Engineering, CPA, Medical, Lawyers board exams – all of those professions have their share of cheating. So much so that, nudging those rates from passing to failure has supposedly become a cottage industry in the PRC.
Consider all the top professional review centers – someone somewhere always knows a board examiner, or a leakage which insures that reviewees get the latest questions and be assured of a high score, even become a top notcher.
The thing is when these so-called “professionals” are screened (as in the Visa Screen for nurses) – they will get in trouble. Unfortunately, it casts doubt on us who took the exams fair and square. Worse, the credibility of our professionals sink rather quick.
Whether it’s the school exams, quizzes. We’d rather be “in” and known as someone who is “pakisama” instead of doing the right thing. And so we agree to cooperate, to turn a blind eye, to keep our lips sealed, to pretend nothing happened. Who the hell are we kidding – we were cheating – ALL OF US.
We Cheat In Sports
The more memorable ones included the 1992 Little League World Series where we fielded overaged players. Al Mendoza, a Filipino journalist blew the whistle.
Six true Zamboangueños were over-age, at least one as old as 15,[9] and thus ineligible. It was discovered that, as with the eight non-district players, the fraud had been maintained by the players’ assumption of identities of (eligible) players who had represented the city at the national championships, the families of whom were reportedly willing to reveal all, jealous of the prizes bestowed upon the players who had used their sons’ identities to represent their country at the Far East and World Series. In some cases, even the parents of the ineligible players assumed appropriate identities to maintain the appearance of propriety.[8] Nocum, seemingly backing Andaya’s assertion that the substitutes were not chosen to artificially inflate the team’s performance, was reported later as saying that had the original Zamboanga City team participated in the World Series, they would have trounced Long Beach by far more runs.[6]
In an interesting post-script, Zamboanga City was disqualified from the Filipino national titles the very next year in another over-age player scandal.[10]
What’s worse is that a lot of Filipinos were angry at Mendoza for blowing the whistle. Susmaryosep.
Consider our PRISAA/UAAP – how many of those athletes are true students and not over-aged? I do understand that there are second coursers – but when you have for example, a men’s basketball team where the players have been at it for 10 to 20 years – that’s no longer a student, that’s a professional student whose sole purpose is to win games for the school. That’s still cheating, butwe sure do cheer from the sidelines when the dude sinks a hoop – we know he is over age, we know it is cheating, but hey, we keep on clapping.
We Cheat In the Workplace
Our penchant for cheating in the workplace is something else.
We steal office supplies. We come in super late. We time out super early. We moonlight on company time. We have ghost employees – on top of the 15-30 employees. We have two accounting journals – one for the BIR, and one that shows how much money we actually made. We under-declare our taxes – and that’s being “good” because more often than not, we are evading taxes. We cut corners like crazy. We adulterate products. We make the taxi meters run faster than they should.
Huh… we cry foul when public officials cheat – but somehow, we, Juan de la Cruz get some sordid satisfaction in getting away with stuff. Isn’t that convenient – and hypocritical?
The list goes on and on.
We Cheat in Elections
Of course, the Philippine elections is the superbowl of cheating. As fellow AP blogger ilda commented
It turns out that automated machines are not foolproof. Reports abound of machines malfunctioning, machines found kept in someone’s shed, the discrepancies in time lapsed, and allegations of malicious software installed in the machine itself.
Lesson learned: Filipinos cannot be trusted with both manual and automated election. Filipinos are very resourceful at finding a way to cheat.
Some people just never know when to stop. Attempting to cheat an automated system actually makes detection a lot easier. Can you imagine if the counting was done manually – it would have taken a longer time to track and trace the variance. When the time to run the numbers is shorter, I’d wager that it will make spotting spikes and abnormalities rather quicker.
Epilogue
Whether it’s the government, in school, in the workplace, at home, or in the elections – we cheat.
And for that – we have all this sh*t.
C’mon guys and gals – haven’t we made the connection yet – in the end, the cheats wind up with sh*t. And you thought that the nice guys finish last. Singapore’s definitely saying no to that – it pays to be nice, to be honest, to be straight.
It is a crying shame – the Philippines is not just reduced to an idiocracy, but it is becoming a nation of cheats.
About: Bong:A self-described "mutt" having ancestors of diverse origins - Maranao, Ilonggo, Butuanon, and Ilocano. Born and raised in Southern Mindanao's Davao City, now living in the East Coast's Sunshine State.
29 Comments
Is the Philippines Becoming a Nation of Cheaters?
What do you mean “becoming”. It has been for a long long time.
[Reply]
BongV Reply:
May 26th, 2010 at 6:53 pm
Dang, you are such a spoiler
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Hung Hang Reply:
May 26th, 2010 at 8:03 pm
Here’s one topic you or the other AP writers can write about and why Karl Marx was spot on with the Philippines, although he failed to foresee another opiate.
“Religion and show biz are the opiates of the Filipino masses”
[Reply]
J.B. Reply:
May 26th, 2010 at 8:25 pm
Revolutions too, both non-violent (EDSA) and violent (NPA), are opiates of the Filipino masses.
ChinoF Reply:
May 27th, 2010 at 2:25 am
Filipinos love opiates rather than solutions… hmmm, that’s a topic too.
ChinoF Reply:
May 26th, 2010 at 11:01 pm
Agreed…. it’s a culture that’s been around ever since. Reinforced by victim mentality, anti-foreignism and arrogance. We get the government we deserve.
I’ve got a lengthy article on family values coming up that explains one reason why we have such a strong “cheat” culture.
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Cheating is no longer too horrid in the eyes of practitioners.
Take for instance the pork barrel kickbacks. It has spun too many nice-sounding terms: ‘system loss’, SOP (standard operating procedure), commitment, etc.
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There is a joke about how a barber once offered free haircutting services for a given time and how various people of different nationalities came in and responded to the offer in ways that kinda reflected stereotypes about each culture.
The punchline is when the Filipino comes in with an army of kin tagging along behind him.
Cheating is but a component of a larger framework of an ingrained inability in Da Pinoy to recognise the thin line that delineates being resourceful and being compliant to accepted rules.
Resourcefulness in the context of navigating the complexities of living in a modern civilisation to some extent involves a bit of savviness applied to playing the rules. Trouble is Filipinos FAIL to get THE RIGHT BALANCE. Indeed, it seems Pinoys are more inclined towards impropriety and thievery and less towards fairness and community spirit.
We can go as far as saying that Filipinos have a culture of crime:
Kawawang Pinoy. So much to learn, so little brain capacity to absorb.
[Reply]
HalleluyahHymen Reply:
May 26th, 2010 at 9:42 pm
The problem is purely “transactional”. It’s a choice between being ignorant and learning how to understand what is one’s “social contract” or “social obligation”. If a person or a company cheats, he / it has the knowledge of the repercussions of the result of the act but all the other “social obligations” are not taken into account of… such as… the effect to other persons or firms including himself / their own. If one will be able to consider the amoral social contractual obligation of being a good citizen/firm and a useful labor unit/firm in an economy, there will be less probability of cheating and stealing.
For example, a firm from the Makati Business Club (http://www.mbc.com.ph/members/default.htm) will always have the proclivity to evade the right payment of taxes. They would not cheat their accounting systems and employ the most advanced technological software and hardware to monitor sales and expenditures so that there would be transparency from among their stakeholders. OTOH, they would do anything to kill competition and minimize expenses by not paying equitably assessed taxes. The social contractual commitment is discarded when it comes to the accounting of profits. The long run or the grander effect of tax evasion is not by any means considered at all.
To maintain this status quo ante… they need to support somebody like Noynoy who for the last 12 years as a legislator never had this concept of what a social contract is… what is more convenient is that they’ve used the “social contract” phrase in their call to vote for him. It worked for the ignorant and lazy registered voters who do not even know their “social contract” as a VOTER where one obligation would be to research for the truth about their candidates of choice. In the long run or in the next six years… these firms and individuals will always do their own thing… how convenient!
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J.B. Reply:
May 26th, 2010 at 10:58 pm
Benig0, I wonder what’s your take on calling “so little brain capacity to absorb”.
Human beings are basically the same wherever they are on this planet. If the absence of proper education is the root cause, then finding means to plug the hole would be one of the best solutions possible.
I know AP tends to educate but there are technological vacuum between the techie reader and ordinary pinoys. There must be something more tangible and fruitful beyond the reach of ordinary pinoys.
[Reply]
Jon Abaca Reply:
May 27th, 2010 at 12:32 am
The void between an average AP reader and an average Pinoy exists in three levels.
The linguistic void: AP readers are more expressive in English. Average Pinoys are more expressive in whatever regional dialect they normally use.
The Technological void: AP readers have access to the Internet, AND see the internal as a viable source of information. Average Pinoys either don’t have access to the Internet, or see it as either facebook, skype, YM, a place to find scandal videos, or the source of the latest DotA version.
The Cultural void: AP readers are well, more serious and willing to argue about their beliefs. The average Pinoy would much rather avoid conflict and watch Wowowee or whatever soap opera is on right now.
The hole that needs to be plugged is the size of the Grand Canyon.
Sentro ng Katotohanan is a great start. A television program would be helpful, but too many Filipinos would rather watch Wowowee or Habang May Buhay that any informative program would end up late in the evening. Unfortunately, only the adults are most likely to be awake then. These adults are more likely to consider the cultural dysfunction canon, and are more likely to resist change.
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J.B. Reply:
May 27th, 2010 at 1:34 am
True about the voids above but we’re not dealings here with the “Bonjings”, the Pinoys who have grown-up abnormally.
I am more inclined to teach the youngs especially those who are still can be mould.
If the leftist could make a cult following brainwashing the youngs, I would think the same people could also be lured into something more proactive and realistic.
benign0 Reply:
May 27th, 2010 at 1:47 am
@ J.B., education is a key key ingredient to world-class thinking. But there is also something to be said of the underlying infrastructure that supports how Filipinos think — the kind of stuff that would normally be ingrained in early childhood and through the nature of how one is raised. I glibly refer to it as a lack of “brain capacity to absorb”. What I was specifically describing in using that term is how the collective intellectual faculties of the Filipino are so sorely lacking in many essential building blocks of modern-day thinking — the sort of thinking needed not only to survive, but to thrive and succeed in the modern world.
One area would be how Filipino children are both not expected to think and, for that matter, discouraged from thinking to the extent that they are routinely lied to or misled by their elders who seem to be of the mindset that they do not owe any explanation to people they see to be subordinate to them (in most cases, their own children!).
One of my favourite illustrative texts of this comes from an email sent in by a reader a couple of years ago where I highlight this excerpt:
You can see from the above where the stunted comprehension faculties of the Filipino seem to be rooted. It goes deeper than the quality of the education delivered by the public syste. It goes down to the very bedrock institution of the society itself — the family.
If you don’t mind, I’m developing the above into a proper article which I shall publish in GetRealPhilippines.net wihtin the next hour or so (into which I will also incorporate my responses to HalleluyahHymen‘s and Jon Abaca‘s comments as well).
Thanks to you three for the inspiration! Watch that space guys.
[Reply]
J.B. Reply:
May 27th, 2010 at 2:40 am
Good stuff.
I was actually curious about your position on nature vs nurture type of perspective with regards to da Pinoys mindsets.
Mannypacquiao.ph was basically all out for Gordon except that members failed to comprehend the wide-gaping hole of lack of proper education among Filipinos, including proper upbringing of course. They seemed can’t get the severity of educational problem when Gordon proposed to tax 50 cents for every mobile text just to pay for 40k teachers’ monthly salary.
I agree the 50 cents is too severe but that’s how every Filipino should chip in to pay in preventing the the continued rise of number of bonjings (mis-educated).
[Reply]
Jay Reply:
May 27th, 2010 at 10:59 pm
They get outraged for taxing 50 cents for text? I propose they tax cigarettes more! No one stops smoking (even Noynoy) even if you raised cigarette prices to something like 5 pesos. If they want to get into vices, they might as well understand how it can somehow help the government as well.
But good points with everyone here. The issue isn’t individually acceptable (not tolerated) but socially, as observed in a macro and micro level.
Also unlike many of the AP regulars who already knows their role in society as a “social obligation”, noynoy supporters among others are still treating it like a moral obligation. They go about saying there is going to be change and now they will do their best to support the newly elect leaders, or the others who have posted here who are resigned to the knowledge that Noynoy won so they have to accept it and do their best as a citizen.
benign0 Reply:
May 27th, 2010 at 7:18 am
All done now. I’ve posted an article were I make my attempt to explore these concepts we discussed above. Check it out here.
[Reply]
HalleluyahHymen Reply:
May 27th, 2010 at 7:51 am
Benign0
Have read your article and thanks for the citations. I’ve wanted to comment but I’m too lazy today to register… but here’s my take on the “social contract” theory without going through the complications of how it was explained by Locke, Rousseau and Hobbes.
A citizen will always have a “social obligation” to himself and his fellow citizen. He has multiple functions that is why he has multiple “social contracts”. As a parent it is his “social obligation” to nurture his child from the moment of conception and to form the child into another “good” citizen or useful labor unit. In a sociological theory called structural functionalism, a society functions within the framework of the structure. If a citizen fails to fit into the structure, he’s either booted out as an unemployed hobo or finds for himself another society where he can function within the structure (migration). OTOH, “social contract” should be able to put into the minds of every player within the structure of society their obligations. EG. The legislator in the legislative structure of the government is contractually bound to draft bills for enactment of laws. It is the “social obligation” of a legislator to review existing laws, draft new ones or revise existing ones. The contractual obligation of the state is to pay him for that function. (The president apparent knows his “social obligations” as a senator OTOH, he’s either dumb or lazy.)
Remember how Peter Parker became a Spiderman along the context of “social contract”. Uncle Ben Parker drilled into his mental framework the saying “with great powers lies great responsibilities.” The education of spiderman on this “social contract” theory even came from “the school of hard knocks”. Point is that each of the citizens in a banana government has an obligation… a social obligation… not a moral obligation… and I agree on the context of the message of your post…. education… not just a Quiapo type education… but quality education.
[Reply]
benign0 Reply:
May 27th, 2010 at 8:38 am
Thanks, HH. That site, though equipped with comment features was never really meant to be a forum for comment-based discussion.
I read that Bill Gates himself was also counseled by his mother at some point by reminding him that his great wealth puts him in a position of greater responsibility that extends beyond Microsoft (which by itself is a big enough responsibility relative to that which most of us face).
Perhaps we take it for granted that we ourselves understand our respective social contracts thus predisposing us to expect as much from Philippine society — which in almost all cases leads to disappointment.
[Reply]
HalleluyahHymen Reply:
May 27th, 2010 at 9:31 am
@ Benigno
Blaming the government will always be the usual rant of a disgruntled ignorant citizen. It is the stigma or sort of a left over from those individuals who’ve been blaming the government on their perceived societal hardships during the time of Marcos… Marcosian era is where one oligarch clan rules over government and markets… so Marcos = government and government = Marcos. Gasgas na yan. Ngayon… PI Government = collusion of ruling clans… the landed and moneyed class controls the government and the markets. The Aquinos, the MBC firm owners, Cojuangcos, Villars, Estradas, Lopezes, Ayalas… the 20 percent who owns 80 percent of the PI resources is the “collusion”… the collusion of oligarchs. These persons who’ve been elected and appointed to top positions of the structure of the State called government belongs to this “leisure class.”
The government will only function properly if those persons elected or appointed into its three branches will know what their social contracts are. OTOH, if they are the “leisure class” like Noynoy their primary interest which is “for the best interest of the clan” will always be their priority. So what’s the solution… YOU EITHER KILL THEM… OR RE-EDUCATE THEM.
Jon Abaca Reply:
May 28th, 2010 at 7:15 am
Thank you for the citation.
I think the reason many people do not follow their social contract is because they never experience the consequences of their actions, or the consequences get “softened” , or they pass the buck.
For example, many abusive husbands stay violent, because their battered wives stay passive. The neighbors, who, oddly enough, don’t consider peace and quiet as one of their interests, don’t do anything. There is no social stigma, and without a police report, the husband will escape the law. For that husband, he experiences no consequences.
Here is another example. There are many poor people who have more children than they can take care of. They are mired in poverty, but enough people help them. They even use their children as to guilt-trip more people into helping them. For the family, the consequences of having too many children are “softened” by the misplaced charity of other people.
Here is yet another example. An HR manager in a copy editing company told me that graduates from Ateneo or La Salle are better in English than graduates from smaller universities. Instead of using English more to get better at the language, many bitter graduates just complain about the “rich elites” who run the companies. They pass the buck.
Social contracts have an accompanying social consequence. It is not necessarily the job of the government to enforce the consequence.
It’s like the scarlet letter lost its meaning.
HalleluyahHymen Reply:
May 28th, 2010 at 10:30 am
Jon…
When education becomes a privilege than a right… there is a disequilibrium on the aggregate level. Policies are created to be implemented… and it should be implemented to the letter and its spirit. The problem of Pinas educational IMHO, lies on the behaviour of those persons who administer the government, the owners and administrators of academic institutions (public or private) and the parent-citizens.
Let’s start with the parents…
The mind setting as seen on game shows, tele novelas and tele pantasyas would be:
1. “anak magaral kang mabuti para makakuha ka ng magandang trabaho at makatulong ka sa ating pamilya pag nakatapos ka.”
2. “anak mag aral kang mabuti para makapag abroad ka.”
two things… to get employed so that the student can help his/her family and to go abroad… BAD MOTIVATION…
Academic institutions
The curriculum of an institution is dependent on the motivation of the government…. since pinas has a long standing policy to send out its labor units to more developed countries to either solve the unemployment ratio, the curricula of academic institutions are based (indirectly) on this policy… this and academe’s perception of the international labor demand market creates an overflowing supply of nurses, computer technicians, and Hotel and Restaurant Management (HRM) grads… Who owns and administers a school… religious cults… such as the Jesuits, Benedictine monks and the La Salle brothers… INCs… and the oligarchs…
Government agencies
The Department of Education and Culture is divided into three segments that monitors different levels of education… the DECS for primary and secondary schools, Committee on Higher Education (CHED) for college, post-grad and doctoral levels and TESDA for technical courses. Each of these segments has its own policy… they approve textbooks… curricula… and accreditation… Unfortunately this executive government agency for the last decades will only look into infrastructure problems that is related to the population multiplier dilemma… such as classrooms and the ratio of teachers per students…. and… none or no prioritization of QUALITY on public education. Oftentimes it just concentrates on how to increase the salaries and bonuses of public school teachers.
The elite studes do not have these problems… the cults and the oligarchs see to it that they have better modules than the public schools to make their graduates “competitive” and better english speakers.
What do we need in Pinas as far as policy on education is concerned?
I don’t know… hehehe…
IMHO… the curricula should be working towards the development of student-citizens are willing to engage themselves in:
1. Research and development…
2. Entrepreneurship…
… asian countries who are classified as MDCs have moved to this direction… so it is NOT CORRUPTION as ABNOY ranted during his campaign… it’s gaddamn EDUCATION as Benign0 pointed out.
HalleluyahHymen Reply:
May 28th, 2010 at 10:33 am
… to either solve the unemployment ratio or benefit from the remittances…
From what I see here, we’ve also become a nation of whiners.
We’ve gotta start somewhere, right? I don’t see any viable (realistic) solutions being offered up by anyone here. Are there any proposals?
[Reply]
May Party Sa Dasma Wala Akong Wheels Reply:
May 26th, 2010 at 11:55 pm
@thegreatest:
What could be more viable/realistic than telling people “Don’t be your typical dysfunctional Filipino selves because it’s doing you a lot of harm despite all your fruitless Proud to be Pinoy attitude”?
It’s simple, direct, it shames (some) guilty parties into some form of rethinking their behaviour, it gets straight shooters like many AP readers thinking they’re not entirely surrounded by a-holes because there are good Filipinos who want no part of the dysfunction, and knowing this we can be confident that we may still be able to fix this by sticking with the basics. Most Pinoys suck at the basics, not because they can’t, but they won’t.
[Reply]
ilda Reply:
May 27th, 2010 at 12:37 am
@thegreatest
Solution for the cheating problem being discussed above:
1. Stop/avoid cheating or
2. Report cheaters.
3. Charge and prosecute cheaters.
4. Put cheaters in jail to deter copycats.
I gather you equate an analysis of the problem to whining. Would you rather that cheaters get away with their unlawful behavior?
[Reply]
ChinoF Reply:
May 27th, 2010 at 1:59 am
I think the article has it down pat. You see bad behavior, it’s a big thing already to differ from that behavior. Kung baga, boycotting or disobeying culture is a solution. What solutions would you offer, Thegreatest?
[Reply]
Jay Reply:
May 27th, 2010 at 4:05 am
Uh, starting somewhere seems not to be the problem since like any addiction, there are people who can’t ADMIT to their actions and take responsibility for them. The moment you finally do that, the moment you can pinpoint where those problems are, be committed to change things around and be on a road to recovery.
Its simple really. No need for your tedious analysis, because it goes back to motivation. If you want it done, you will do it. If you don’t, you’l find an excuse. That is the pinoy way and it has been like that for so long. So if you want to defend that lifestyle from ‘whiners’, enjoy losing out with the rest of the country since the Spanish left.
[Reply]
Paolo Reply:
May 28th, 2010 at 9:26 am
Look at the mirror. There’s your answer.
Can’t figure it out? Go figure.