Educational Institutions and Corruption

PERHAPS more than meets the eye, the level and degree of corruption rampant in the Philippines is an indictment of educational institutions in the country, other factors notwithstanding. It is a well-known fact that most alleged big time corrupt individuals are graduates of so-called prestigious educational institutions.

It is no longer enough for educational institutions to dissociate themselves from their alumni allegedly involved in graft and corruption or to consider them exceptions to what they consider as a sterling roster of alumni through the years. Individually and collectively as educational institutions, they must take stock of where have they gone wrong deficient or unknowing and may have left a gap in the training and education of alumni who feature in gross corruption cases.

No allegedly corrupt person has yet been speedily tried and fully convicted even in the face of glaring evidence which somehow in one way or another has been clouded by doubts and counter doubts to a point of almost extinction; not so rarely even made extinct by allegations of another or even more grotesque cases of corruption, one overshadowing the other in the scheme of events. Some linger through the years with perpetrators free to claims of denial while courts take time to persecute for one or more things lacking in evidence and counter evidence.

That is why corruption is getting deeply embedded in Philippine culture. People are getting frustratingly resigned to it as part of the system. Big names with alleged corruption cases walk the high and low society of the country either with claims of innocence or as "gods" of the poor and oppressed. Even the deprived sectors of society who believe they are crooks and guilty of corruption cheer and accept their so-called humanitarian projects with glee. And perhaps, rightfully so since the courts have not passed judgments and in the meantime those who have so far managed to stay clear of irregularities get bolder and bolder day by day to be like them as their political will to be incorruptible dissipate into nothingness.

Even the most sincere intentions of government and some governmental organizations to stem the tide of corruption in the Philippines cower beneath the power of this social malaise to survive and even grow with seeming dignity. The louder the media "barks," seemingly, the louder they claim innocence from wrongdoing. It appears like nothing is anymore new and even repulsive if agencies are ranked as the most corrupt ones in the social system. In the light of these realities, the latest strategy of "shame" to combat corruption could be a nonstarter.

Perhaps it is unfair to confront educational institutions with this state of corruption in the country and yet there is no other social institution which may have the courage to take a good hard look at the facts behind this dismal state of corruption of all kinds, moral, economics, social and in general cultural degeneration of the national fabric.

Even the family as a basic social institution appears impervious to it as each pursue a goal of advancement as fast and as high as can be with seemingly very little regard as to how and what makes possible such "progress" in life ahead of others. It becomes very easy for wives to become partners of convenience in the scheme of corruption and for children to be unknowingly being given the best from so-called illgotten wealth, until the scandals blow up when all family members have no choice most of the time but to stand with each other.

Hence, the educational institutions could be the last resort where a critical mass of manpower to reverse the fortune of corruption may be developed. It may be a long process but educational institutions can fight corruption within the classrooms. So far, most of the manpower educational institutions produce eventually get sucked into the system of corruption.