I would like to focus my reaction on this topic by presenting a question, “Is fixing a way of life in the Philippines? ” As a current background, Philippines is a home to almost 93 million Filipinos and the 12th most populous country in the world. It has an unemployment rate of 7. 5 % and underemployment of 18. 9 % with inflation rate of 1. 5%. In the year 2005 ADB release a study that Philippines rank no. 15 among the 23 nations in Asia-Pacific in terms of per capita income. So here we can deduce that Filipinos really have a shortfall in terms of meeting the desired income in order to live in a descent life.
Another study shows two top reasons why corruption exist among the Filipinos, first; is they want to get rich, second; the salary/wages is not enough. Fixing to me is a way of life to majority of the Filipinos embedded not only in day to day transactions but is already in the moral fiber of the majority. It can be based on the theory of rational choice in economics. It is a problem from top to bottom of the society be it in the private sector but is most pronounced in the government being the regulatory body of all transactions.
It is caused by the economic situation of the country, it arises in a situation whereby cost and benefit analysis is considered. Why I said cost and benefit analysis? It is because the reward of one doing the unlawful act is far more than the punishment he will get if being caught. And it flourishes because of the lack of the political will of all concerned government agencies to implement equally the laws governing the act. Primarily, fixing continue to thrive due the apathy of the private citizens on reporting any illegal acts of government people due the cumbersome and time consuming processes and the uncertainty of results.
However, to me there are good side effects of fixing as long as it does not involve corruption, in fact it gives some opportunity for others unemployed to earn. For some people doing multi-task and valued precious time, would rather pay some person to do the job and accomplish it in due time rather than waiting for a days, weeks and even months to attain the same. For example in a long queue one can hire someone to stand for him/her in early morning so as to represent him/her before the actual arrival. In the registration of vehicles one can just left the documents to someone and be the one to process the transactions.
Fixing also open the opportunity for the government to recognize its weakness and find ways to improve its delivery services. It also provide legislators insights to create responsive policies and laws attune to the current situations. I may sound apathetic, but no matter what the government will do fixing will always be there as part of day to day transactions in the government for as long there are people willing to pay and there people willing to accept the risk for they know that benefit they got is far more than the cost of getting caught.
