FROM THE BARREL OF MY PEN
By Gonzalo “Jun” Policarpio


THE MARRIAGE OF POWER AND CORRUPTION


I think almost every Filipino believes that Philippine President Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino won the presidency last year mainly because of his message in his campaign slogan “Kung walang korap, walang mahirap.” (English translation: If there are no corrupt officials, there will be no poor people.) Sounds convincing but only to the naïve.
Revising the slogan this way is more credible: “Kung walang mahirap, walang korap.”(English translation: If there are no poor people, there will be no corrupt officials.”)

Majority of the poor Filipinos voted for Aquino because they felt that he is the agent of change that would improve their living conditions with Aquino’s anti-corruption agenda.
Here is the truth of the matter: no political power nor any kind of power as long as it is in the hands of a human being can eradicate corruption because power and corruption exist symbiotically: power corrupts.

Let’s accept the fact that in the Philippines, we will enjoy five more years of corrupt government and in the United States, only two more years. What happens in the succeeding government would be much of the same kind of corruption. A meritorious government can only exist in Heaven above where the Angels enforce the law of God.

What am I trying to say, you may ask? I am saying is that we live in a corruptible world and the only way out of it is to fight corruption when we see it. It surely is a long struggle that is worth fighting for.

Imagine yourself swimming in a river full of crocodiles. Surely you’ll be eaten alive unless you fight them off and survive. You cannot kill them all those devilish reptiles.
Yet you can survive with the help of God if you ask Him for help.

So that’s the only thing we can do to survive: ask God for help while still living in this corruptible world.