Dear Kim Jaeyoun,

Your short essay on the Philippines has been circulating around e-mail groups, blogs, and websites for years now. Thank you for your concern and thank you for calling on us Filipinos to love our country. It is precisely because we love our country dearly that is why we have raised our voices to condemn the corruption that has been going on for decades now.
Filipinos have always complained of corruption because it is a reality that one cannot deny. Several surveys can attest to this cancerous scourge devouring the nation. The Philippines’ dismal rating in the 2008 Global Corruption Report released by the Transparency International dropped 10 places from the previous year, tying for 141st place with Cameroon, Iran and Yemen.
Last year, the country tied for 131st place with Burundi, Honduras, Iran, Libya, Nepal and Yemen. In Asia, the Philippines rated higher than Indonesia at 143rd place. In 2007, Political and Economic Risk Consultancy (PERC) came out with a survey that the Philippines was the most corrupt country in Asia.
To say that corruption is not the problem only exacerbates the problem. It only serves to promote the culture of corruption now plaguing the country. By denying corruption and keeping silent about it we are making this culture of corruption the norm. Corruption continues to worsen the incidence of poverty and deny much-needed social services to millions of Filipinos.
The $329.48-million ZTE broadband network scam, the P728-million fertilizer scam, the Jose Pidal bank accounts, the Northrail project, the $14-million IMPSA power plant project, the P1.3-billion poll automation project, and the Macapagal Boulevard project, and lately the World Bank-funded road project – all these could have been spent to provide badly-needed education and health services to millions of impoverished Filipinos. It could have been used to help the Department of Education (DepEd) bridge its resource gaps of classrooms, textbooks and teachers or could also have been used to increase subsidies for indigent patients in government hospitals such as the Philippine General Hospital.
Now let us talk about your country. I really don’t know much about your country except that I highly admire the way you South Koreans have developed as a nation. From a poor nation after the war, you are now developed enough to be considered a first world nation. I admire your country and your people because you had the political will to build your nation. Like us, you battled dictatorships and military juntas. I was a student when I heard about the brave men and women of Kwangju who were mercilessly massacred by the troops of the military dictatorship. It was love of country that led to this 1980 pro-democracy uprising, they tried to quell it but the tanks and guns could not stop the freedom-loving South Koreans quest for democracy. .
And yes, you South Koreans had a strong sense of love for your country that is why you sent 2 of your former Presidents, Chun Doo-Hwan and Roh Tae-Woo in 1995 to jail after being convicted of receiving bribes and inciting mutiny. You too had the courage to send the 2 sons of President Kim Dae-Jung to three-and.a-half years in prison for taking bribes from big business.
We Filipinos will have that kind of love of country too. And it will be soon.

Juanito Makabayan

husband killing his own wife and children, adultery, rape, abortion, suicide attempts…

you see my dear, here, dreams are only for the rich… ^_^ if you are poor. you get no respect, no love, no care….. not even a chance to be heard.., with no money… innocent or victimized, you are judged guilty.., simply because this is the country where you will find NO JUSTICE at all. I am tired.
Yes! I have cried for the Philippines, I prayed..,

how to tend to make a move if. . . people wont allow it.

trying.. trying.. and trying..-to no avail

Filipinos leave the Philippines and stay away from the Philippines because of trust. There is no trust on government. If all could leave the Philippines, they will.

Filipinos love the Philippines, they just can’t stand their government and their economy. Love is not the issue. Whoever wrote this piece do not know squat!

It’s kinda ironic that I would be reading an essay such as this, written by a Korean and not by a fellow Filipino. Nevertheless, it is a great essay and hopefully it will help open the eyes of Filipinos.