August 7, 2011

Social Transformation, Its Paramount Importance - First Part

Philippine President Noynoy Aquino, in his Second State of the Nation Address (SONA) on July 25, 2011 before a Joint Session of Congress, called for social transformation in the Philippines.The following passages are lifted from the English translation of his SONA:

"Let us not acquire through patronage what we can acquire through hard work. No more cheating, no more taking advantage of others, no more one-upmanship - because in the end we will all realize our shared aspirations."

"Let us end the culture of negativism; let us uplift our fellow Filipinos at every opportunity. Why are there people who enjoy finding fault in our country, who find it so hard - as though it were a sin - to say something nice? Can we even remember the last time we praised a fellow Filipino?"

"Let us stop pulling our fellow men down. Let us put an end to our crab mentality. Let us make the effort to recognize the good that is done."
Indeed, this Blogger strongly believes that social transformation is of paramount importance, and even urgent necessity as radical change may prevent further deterioration in our present woeful state. For instance, the culture of corruption is deeply embedded in our government and sadly spreading to the private sector. Under the unlamented Arroyo regime, our country was shamed to be called Asia's most corrupt where the stench from a series of graft and corruption originated from the very top of our government.

Although, the new Aquino administration has earnestly started its campaign against corruption with some modicum of success in some government agencies, prosecution of the perpetrators of some large-scale cases of corruption in the previous regime was stymied by the inaction of the former Ombudsman Gutierrez.

Fortunately, public pressure forced her eventual resignation thereby giving the opportunity for President Aquino to appoint the new Ombudsman, former Supreme Court Justice Morales. The new Ombudsman is expected to take up the slack in many unsolved cases left unattended by the previous Ombudsman, a much welcome development in P-Noy's campaign against corruption.

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