Poverty can breed cirruption

As we all will agree poverty can breed corruption as I have quoting this adage all along:

Ang taong nagigipit sa patalim ma'y kumakapit.

Given this situation how do we expect the jury system to take roots and prosper in a society where there is plenty of poverty. And following your assertion that a person in dire of basic necessities in life, which you say is all to familiar in the Philippine scene, how can these people contibute to the success of jury system in the Philippines.

But again poverty is not all the root cause of corruption. Corruption is imbibed by many including the rich people if they are so raft with materialism that to them the sky is the limit in reaching self serving goals.

In Minnesota we do have poor people, but because Minnesota and the entire US takes care of poor people as it is a welfare country. People in poverty status in the Usa do not need to go hungry and get sick; they will provided adequate attention. The poor also get free education and employment assistance to improve their prospect of getting themselves out of poverty. But in developing countries, the opposite is true as these opportunities are not afforded to the populace sorely in need of them. Hence when a person lacks the basic necessities to survive, s/he is more predisposed to selling his/her soul to the devil and worst to live in the life of crime.

So the most important agendum for our country is to provide opportunities for the least of our brothers/sisters to have the opportunity to work in order to at least eke for a living. The jury system will haave to take a back seat as it will not change our deplorable landscape of poverty and neither will it prevent graft because we need people who have integrity to make the system work, and again they also have to have their basic needs in life satisfied to maintain continuously the build and have integrity. Integrity will not come on an empty stomach.

So there is no need to be angry to those who are opposed to the jury system, to those who ask a lot of important questions which you call them as skeptics, and others. We have first to address the basic needs of our people to move into some program like the jury system to curb the continuous tide of corruption weakening the moral fibre of our nation.

Many of our countrymates, in millions, have chosen to emigrate to foreign countries to find a place in the sun and to support their needy relatives back home. I applaud them for this though I know and they also do that danger and abuses are lurking when they move to foreign countries especially to countries that do not observe human rights laws. But what can we do? Between the devil and the deep blue sea, which will a needy person choose?

Again do not exhibit impatient or anger just because some if many of us in the cyberspace communication have reservation on the jury system as you believe is the panacea of removing the ills of our country. You have to understand the situation of many of our countrymates and address those concerns. Once those concerns are addressed then we can move to the establishment of jury system in the RP.

Atty Cita appears to be the epitome of patience, grace, and understanding when she expresses her understanding to and for those who have reservation for the jury system because she knows very well that establishing it is not an easy task considering the political culture and the omnipresence of poverty in our country.

Eddie