Poverty & Corruption: Not necessarily related.

After all, the biggest thieves were never poor. Marcos was a bar topnotcher who became a senator; and then President. Subsequent presidents who were accused of huge corruption weren’t poor either. General Fidel Ramos wasn’t poor. Erap Estrada came from a very rich family; a successful actor with many wives. Gloria Macapagal Arroyo grew up as a daughter of a President. Mike Arroyo’s family owns a hacienda in Negros, don’t they?


Corruption and the Poor: Not necessarily exclusive of each other, too.

I mean, if you listen to communist propaganda they always say they are working and fighting for the poor. In fact, they have a saying in the communist movement, “ang masa lamang ang tunay na bayani” (only the masses are the true heroes). A former Marxist activist turned Redemptorist Brother published a book recently entitled, “Masses are Messiah”. As if the masses are blameless.

But look, who are the instruments of the corrupt? Aren’t they the poor? Who are the ones who sell their votes during elections to corrupt politicians? In this sense, two of the groups who claim to represent the poor (the Roman Catholic Church and the Communist Party) are huge failures. They’ve been on that pro-poor advocacy for a long long time. But still, they have failed to prevent the poor from selling their votes during elections; they have failed to prevent the poor from gambling in jueteng, swertres, etc. Even in so-called Red Areas controlled by the Communist Party the poor sell their votes. Even in areas where there are frequent novenas and prayer meetings of churches the poor sell their votes and there is rampant jueteng and gambling.