Argosino, Kenne th Martee O.
Volunteers Against Crime and Corruption
BSPT-II
Soci-Economic and Polital issues.
A. Justice Sytem
The last of the triad of Senators accused of
receiving hundreds of millions in kickbacks from
the pork barrel scam walked away a free man on
Dec. 7. Former Senator Ramon “Bong” Revilla, Jr.
was acquitted for plunder and was released by
the Sandiganbayan from Camp Crame.Revilla’s
acquittal follows the release of Jinggoy Estrada
and Juan Ponce Enrile’s from police custody, both
of whom were given back their freedoms after
posting bail for a crime that is supposedly non-
bailable.It will be recalled that back in July 2016,
Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo was also released from
hospital arrest after being cleared of plunder by
the Supreme Court.It is now a clean sweep! The
four big fish that were tried and convicted for
graft and corruption are back walking among us.
They are also back in the political fray — GMA as
Speaker of the House and the three stooges as
senatorial candidates.Meanwhile, the woman
who championed the drive to put these big fish
behind bars, former Justice Secretary and Senator
Leila de Lima is herself languishing in Camp
Crame. The irony could not be more succinct.
B. Corruption
On it’s first year anniversary (October 4,
2018) and barely six months in
operations, the Presidential Anti-
Corruption Commission (PACC) outlined
the state of corruption in the country.
Created thru Executive Order No. 43,
PACC has a continuing mandate to fight
and eradicate graft and corruption in the
different departments, bureaus, offices,
and other government instrumentalities
to ensure that public officials and
employees, except those who conduct
themselves in a manner worthy of the
public trust.
(VACC) founding chairman, Dante
Jimenez, also a former naval officers sits
as PACC chairman, by virtue of an
appointment by President Rodrigo
Duterte.During “The Presser”,a
Presidential Communications Operations
Office’s (PCOO) initiative to give the
public a better understanding of current
issues, Jimenez said a “bulok na
kalakaran” or rotten culture of corruption
has wormed its way into our
bureaucracy, including the legislature and
judiciary, from top to bottom.Corruption
& Survey PollsCorruption perception
surveys and other polls tend to validate
our poor status relative to corruption.
But even in the absence of survey figures,
we continue to see evidence of
corruption in daily government
transactions.Jimenez said, in our country,
bribery and extortion in so called “street
level bureaucrats” are
common.“Examples are the corrupt
traffic enforcers extorting from traffic
violators, or in fixers at city halls.
C. Child labor, prostitution and mendicancy
Child labour is work that deprives
children of their childhood, their
potential and their dignity, and that is
harmful to physical and mental
development. In the Philippines, there
are 2.1 million child labourers aged 5-17
years old based on the 2011 Survey on
Children of the Philippine Statistics
Authority (PSA) . About 95 per cent of
them are in hazardous work. Sixty-nine
per cent of these are aged 15-17 years
old, beyond the minimum allowable age
for work but still exposed to hazardous
work.Children work in farms and
plantations, in dangerous mines, on
streets, in factories, and in private homes
as child domestic workers. Agriculture
remains to be the sector where most
child labourers can be found at 58 per
cent.
 The Philippines has ratified the Minimum
Age Convention, 1973 (No. 138) and
Worst Forms of Child Labour Convention,
1999 (No. 182 . It has adopted the
Philippine Program Against Child Labor
(PPACL) as the official national
programme on the elimination of child
labour.
D. Extrajudicial killings
Extrajudicial killings and forced
disappearances in the Philippines are
illegal executions – unlawful or felonious
killings – and forced disappearances in
the Philippines.[1] These are forms of
extrajudicial punishment, and include
extrajudicial executions, summary
executions, arbitrary arrest and
detentions, and failed prosecutions due
to political activities of leading political,
trade union members, dissident and/or
social figures, left-wing political parties,
non-governmental organizations, political
journalists, outspoken clergy, anti-mining
activists, agricultural reform activists,
members of organizations that are allied
or legal fronts of the communist
movement like "Bayan group" or
suspected supporters of the NPA and its
political wing, the Communist Party of
the Philippines
E. State of Prison
Current prison management models
strictly prohibit inmates from assisting
with prison administration or
governance. This is feasible in developed
countries where governments can
provide adequate resources, security,
and personnel. It is not, however,
realistic in developing countries like the
Philippines, which is characterized by
poverty, corruption, and underresourcing
of correctional facilities. In such
circumstances, inmate leaders tend to
share governance with prison
administrators. Despite occurring out of
necessity, not by design, this system
F. Police And Security
In an article on “Role Conception and
Conduct of Duterte’s Security Policy,” I
argued that the inward-looking role of
government steers the direction of a
domestically oriented National Security
Policy (NSP) in the Philippines for 2017-
2022. President Rodrigo Duterte, in the
opening line of his Message in the NSP,
referred to the constitutional mandate
“to serve and protect the people” in a bid
to end all armed conflicts and lawless
violence that threaten national survival.
Significantly, his policy pronouncement
shaped the highly desired conditions of
“public safety, law and order, and
justice,” which became the first item in
the national interests in the NSP.
“To guarantee public safety and good
governance,” as the foremost agenda in
the 2018 National Security Strategy
(NSS), the strategic line of action is to
“(m)odernise, professionalise, and
synergise the Philippine Armed Forces
and the National Police to be capable of
combating terrorism, insurgency and
subversion, quickly and decisively.” The
aspired synergy of the two power
strongholds is called in the NSS as the
“military and law enforcement”
instrument of national power. Another
key feature in the fight against criminality
includes getting rid of graft and
corruption in the bureaucracy and
reforming the criminal justice system.
G. Indegenious Peoples Right
The number of indigenous peoples in the
Philippines is unknown, but it is estimated
that between 10% and 20% of the
country's population. The Philippines has
adopted the United Nations Declaration
on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, but
has not yet ratified ILO Convention
169.Republic Law 8371, known as the
Indigenous Peoples Rights Act (IPRA),
was enacted in 1997. It has been praised
for its support for the cultural integrity of
indigenous peoples, the right to their
lands and the right to self-directed
development of these lands.A more
substantial implementation of the law is
still sought, as the indigenous peoples of
the Philippines continue to live in
geographically isolated areas with lack of
access to basic social services and few
opportunities for widespread economic
activities, education or political
participation.
H. Violence Against Women
Violence Against Women is any act of
gender-based violence that results or is likely
to result in physical, sexual or psychological
harm or suffering to women including threats
or such acts, coercion or arbitrary deprivation
of liberty whether occurring in public or private
life. Gender-based violence is any violence
inflicted on women because of their sex.VAW
in the family or domestic violence is “violence
that occurs within the private sphere, generally
between individuals who are related through
intimacy, blood or law.” It may take the form
of physical violence (hitting with the fist,
slapping, kicking different parts of the body,
stabbing with a knife, etc) or psychological
and emotional violence (intimidation,
harassment, stalking, damage to property,
public ridicule or humiliation, repeated verbal
abuse, marital infidelity, etc.) or sexual
violence (rape, sexual harassment, acts of
lasciviousness, treating a woman or child as a
sex object, making demeaning and sexually
suggestive remarks, physically attacking the
sexual parts of the victim’s body, forcing
him/her to watch obscene publications and
indecent shows or forcing the woman or her
child to do indecent acts and/or make films
thereof, forcing the wife and mistress/lover to
live in the conjugal home or sleep together in
the same room with the abuser, etc)
or economic abuse (withdrawal of financial
support or preventing the victim from engaging
in any legitimate profession, occupation,
business or activity, deprivation or threat of
deprivation of financial resources and the right
to use and enjoyment of the conjugal,
community or property owned in common,
destroying household property; and controlling
the victim’s own money or properties or solely
controlling the conjugal money or properties.
I. Labor Employment
The Labor policy in the Philippines is
specified mainly by the country's Labor
Code of the Philippines and through
other labor laws. They cover 38 million
Filipinos who belong to the labor force
and to some extent, as well as overseas
workers. They aim to address Filipino
workers’ legal rights and their limitations
with regard to the hiring process,
working conditions, benefits,
policymaking on labor within the
company, activities, and relations with
employees.The Labor Code and other
legislated labor laws are implemented
primarily by government agencies,
namely, Department of Labor and
Employment and Philippine Overseas
Employment Agency. Non-government
entities, such as the trade unions and
employers, also play a role in the
country's labor.
J. Rapid Urbanization
The Philippines is one of the fastest
urbanizing countries in East Asia and
the Pacific. This can bring many
opportunities for growth and poverty
reduction. Cities become engines of
growth if well planned and well
managed,Rapid urbanization in the
Philippines has brought new jobs,
educational opportunities, and better
living conditions for some. However, it
has also brought challenges, which
you’ll see when you move around the
streets of Metro Manila. It’s a large
sprawling metropolitan area of over
12 million, with congestion that is
estimated to cost US$70 million (₱3.5
billion) a day. When it rains, streets
and homes are quickly flooded
because many drains are clogged or
non-existent. Because of lack of
affordable housing, an estimated 11
percent of the city’s population live in
slums. With 17 cities and
municipalities in the metropolitan
area, trying to tackle these challenges
becomes stuck in deep complexities
of urban governance and
management. While other cities in the
Philippines don’t face the scale of
these challenges, they tackle similar
issues.
K. Labor Migration
The Philippines has a long history of
emigration. Indeed since the 1970s
the government has actively facilitated
overseas working to deal with high
unemployment on the one hand, and
extended support to overseas Filipino
workers on the other hand. Today
emigration is part of Filipino culture.
This chapter gives a brief overview of
migration in the Philippines: its drivers
and impact, who the migrants are and
where they have gone, and what
programmes and support migrants
receive in the different phases of the
migration process. It also examines
what data are available and where the
gaps lie. Finally, it lays out the policy
and institutional framework covering
emigration, immigration and return
migration.