Why has it become acceptable for public servants to own mansions?

	QUOTES "Maintaining, even increasing the pork barrel funds is definitely not an anti corruption move. The going rate is a 30-50 percent kickback on pork barrel funded projects." -- Ernesto M. Maceda in The Philippine Star "Each and every Filipino must see that the old way of doing things in the darkness of corruption and deceit has been banished by the broad light of day that has shined on this country once more. We have returned to the much older, much more classical, and much nobler ideals of our heroes—the ideals of honesty, transparency, and nationalism. The Filipino people can dream again. Finally, we can stay true to and fulfill the responsibilities that our heroes have passed onto our shoulders. Finally, under this newfound daylight, we can rebuild this country; we can bequeath to our children a Philippines finally rid of the cancer that has plagued it for centuries, a Philippines that is truly free."...President Aquino, Feb. 17,2011       "After 25 years, the reasons why we had EDSA 1 are the same problems that are present in our society today. Sorry, I’m very pessimistic. While we were successful in ousting a dictator, we were not able to follow through in correcting the abuses." ... Archbishop Leonardo Legaspi, former president of the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines     "On the fight against corruption: this is going to be a long fight. It has to be won step by step. There are no shortcuts. But we’re fighting it across many fronts. First is in sending the right signal, that it’s no longer business as usual, that we do not tolerate corruption. Two, in increasing the risk that those who participate in corruption face, both in the private sector and the public sector. Third, by rationalizing our processes, investing in technology, investing in external information so that we can drive performance, in particular, in our agencies—the Department of Finance, the Bureau of Internal Revenue, and the Bureau of Customs."...Finance Secretary Cesar V. Purisima   "That’s the problem with corruption. You need an eyewitness. If you don’t have that, it’s all just talk because you cannot prove anything,"...Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago   "One in four people reported paying bribes in the last year and 29% said they had paid a bribe to the police."...UK Guardian (based upon TI Global Corruption Barometer)   "If you want a good laugh, read the SALNs filed by public officials in this country."...Ana Marie Pamintuan in The Philippine Star   "...the first priority has to be to address the issue of corruption. Get government's power back so that they can empower the people, and empower them in so many areas -- education, in health, in having a judicial system that works and so on and so forth...I will not only not steal, but I will run after thieves. We lead by example."...President-Elect Benigno Aquino Let us always try to live up to highest ideals of humanity. We must teach our children to rally behind what is right and just during these times of unlimited national and world emergency. Let every Filipino, man, woman or child, pledge himself fully and unwaveringly to support, promote, cherish, and defend with all his strength of mind, body and heart, even with the sacrifice of life itself, and against all foes, those sacred ideals of the Nation: LIBERTY, DEMOCRACY, and our CHRISTIAN CIVILIZATION!... In this modern world, particularly in the Philippines, it is a sad fact that we are departing from the paths of morality. Men scoff at honesty and mock at Religion. In their pride they think that it is a part of modern civilization and enlightenment to cast off as old fashioned and tattered garments the old norms of moral conduct. Immortality, dishonesty, and impiety are contaminating our youths, have invaded all classes and ranks, have corrupted government officials, who are the legal guardians of truth, equity and justice. Many consider virtue as effeminate and an unnecessary handicap to success. They are indeed sadly, fatally mistaken in their notion of civilization and progress. To be immoral, to be without scruples of conscience, might be called progress if they insist on calling it so, but surely it is progress in the wrong direction. There must be mutual respect among all Filipinos regardless of gender, economic status and religious belief. All our actions must not be against the spirit of the Constitution that will in the end cause ill-feeling and mutual antagonism among Filipinos. When this happens we will forever be a country divided, thus, losing our last chance to progress. In these days of action, we need unity and collective strength.      -- Sara Soliven De Guzman in The Philippine Star

	Integrity is most immediately seen as our unity of life. What we teach or say must be matched by what we do. For our peers, our subordinates, our clients and superiors, this is the hardest and most basic currency we can exchange. Whether we talk of business plans, investment incentives or oaths of office, the people we answer to expect us to remain true to our word. And indeed, the world would come to a screeching halt if no one honors agreements.   But to confine integrity solely to the fulfillment of promises and agreements may be a bit limiting.  Integrity is rooted in Truth. Without basing our decisions on the truths about ourselves, about man, it is nothing more than a shallow display of pride. As professionals who steer industry’s course, you are intimately aware that your decisions and ours affect men and their futures. In all that we deliberate, our goal must be to bring our people closer to what is best for each and every one. As such, the common good is a necessary goal of a culture of integrity.   The fight against poverty and corruption is one of your government’s commitments to this goal.  These plagues still pose the greatest barrier to every Filipino’s ability to become all that they can be. I am intimately familiar with the hurdles that poverty brings and while hard work and God’s grace pulled me and countless others out of the mire, it is the duty of government, as well as those citizens who are blessed with more in life, to aid in tearing this wall down.   As we fight poverty, corruption becomes a necessary target of our efforts. Corruption, whether in government or in private organizations, is the unkindest theft we can suffer since it robs the poor and the needy before anyone else. It denies our children access to a decent education, eroding the foundations of their future. It steals our elders’ access to health and medical care, which they sorely need as pains and ailments accompany their twilight years. It diminishes the relief provided to those devastated by calamity. It further empties the plates of those who already starve, but still pay their taxes to fund social services that they hope to benefit from.   To sever the head of this demon, much is required. We need structural reforms in the bureaucracy and its processes. We need personal reforms within each government executive or employee. But above all else, we need changes in the ordinary citizen.   Frugality is one reform we can undertake. It is noble to want a better life for ourselves and our children and we should work hard to gain what we need to make our lives better. But as we have learned from our parents and their parents, it is possible to exercise restraint in preparation for the future, to live simply and be more dignified for it.   While corruption may initially be fueled by need, it is perpetuated by want. Every day, we are bombarded with images that influence our image of progress. Whether in television, the internet or in print, a subliminal message of consumerism seeps into our souls and fuels our aspirations. These offerings show the height of human creativity in the retail and advertising trades, but they have also defined stereotypes of success: a German car, a Swiss watch, a house in a gated community and maybe a summer getaway by the sea.   There is nothing wrong with wanting these things, but we sit on a precarious perch if we end up wanting these things at all costs. It sets the stage for cutting corners in our principles just so we can brandish a perceived badge of stature. It starts to numb our sensitivities, convincing us that it is acceptable to take what is not ours, just so that we can live a lifestyle in place of a life.   Our dignity and value lie far beyond what we own. It is who we are and what we stand for.   From MAP lecture Tearing the Walls of Poverty and Corruption by Jejomar C. Binay, Vice President of the Republic of the Philippines English translation of an extract from the book Migraciones (Migrations) by the Paraguayan author Eligio Ayala, Bern, Switzerland, 1915   To make sausage special skills are required; to be a legislator or minister in Paraguay talent and knowledge are superfluous. Preparation, character and honesty at times get in the way. Certain body contortions and genuflections are worth more than twenty years of studies, than decency and integrity. Those in public office think they know everything, believe they are capable of anything, and lose consciousness of their own ineptitude. In Paraguay to shine with a false reputation simply be a congressman, senator or minister. Then, it follows that the ruling passion is to acquire and retain these posts and for that purpose, instead of studying, preparing and dignifying oneself, one must flatter, intrigue or implore slavishly. For this reason most of those who exercise high political office are the real opinionated upstarts. All the courts have been desecrated by the most frank ineptitude and by absolute nullity. This has filled the Parliament and the ministries with apprentices, who are educated in the past year’s almanacs and shatter national economic activity with their chaotic and clumsy legislative initiatives. Everything is done at random, by trial and error, by instinct as if in a fit of sleepwalking, everything that needs no reform is reformed and nothing that needs to be reformed is reformed. Floating in a sea of passions and desires, with no guiding principles, with no systems, with no knowledge, with no compass, government intervention in the economic sphere has become an opportunistic desire for detail, for expediency, towards the day that frees the national economy to the whim of the small selfish interests of these times. Merit is not respected, nor vice despised, no one is truly indignant about injustice, no one is fair. The culprits lose consciousness of their faults, good men of modesty, and parties of nobility. The good and the bad live in every party in a hypocritical camaraderie, without sincerity, without mutual trust, without gratitude, without generosity. Interest divides and unites and reconciles them on and on. Yesterday's enemies conspire together; today’s friends will be sold tomorrow. Instead of parties, sporadic and convulsive circles are formed by small ambitious persons. The traditional parties, instead of being useful to the country, use the country, instead of serving healthy national interests in government, make the government serve them.

	‎"Prosperity requires tearing down walls in the way of progress -– the corruption of elites who steal from their people; the red tape that stops an idea from becoming a business; the patronage that distributes wealth based on tribe or sect. We will help governments invest efforts at anti-corruption, and activists who use technology to increase transparency and hold government accountable."                                                                          -- U.S. President Barack  Obama