The Stand of Morality in the Philippines

Morality has been one of the Philippines' number one issue today. It is a very broad field touching almost all aspects in the society- be it poverty, justice, power, equality or religion. now in the 21st century, is morality still valued by the people? Is morality still carried at everyones' heart?

MORALITY BY DEFINITION

Morality according to the Webster's dictionary is a moral or right conduct, practice or teachings. it speaks of a system of behavior regarding to the behavior; (2) moral responsibility, which refers to our conscience; (3) and the moral identity, one who knows right from wrong. it has the common synonyms of virtue, justice, goodness and uprightness.

MORALITY IN THE PHILIPPINES

Giving credit to the definition given above, morality describes the principles that govern our behavior. It guides us or our course of actions. Since childhood, we have been told by our dear parents to always do good and act right. We were taught on how to be disciplined. Even in school, since nursery, kindergarten and especially during elementary, good morals and right conduct were always reminded to us by our dear teachers. But what happened to these values upon reaching secondary school? Students in these years tend to be more carefree and they want to do things their way. They crave for independence and freedom leading to rebelliousness and loss of values if their desires weren't considered by their families. Does that mean that growing up at the same time losing the virtues come at the same time? What happened to the manners that were ought to be followed by heart?

Their was once a teenage boy that was known in the neighborhood to be a thief since he was young. He had been caught many times and been to jail for many times too. He is always making promises not to do the crime again but still endures to repeat the act many time. He was asked why he's doing such thing at a very young age where in fact he still have his parents? He was questioned of not being taught of choosing right from wrong. Then he answered "Are morals more important than the needs that I have to fulfill? You are lucky because you have your parents that can provide your necessities. But what about me? My siblings?" His resemblance was too pitiful that he doesn't have the parents who are good providers. But it conferred to a realization that we can't put the blame to the parents. The family's suffering from poverty affecting not only the family's stand of morality but also the perspective of each family member.

Crime statistics shows that as of year 2007, 65,944 crimes were committed or 115.6 crimes per 100,000 population and 17.4% of these were because of robbery. That's according to the PNP records. The cause of robberies were primarily caused by POVERTY.

So in the minds of most people and of the Filipinos, fighting against hunger is better than having an integrity with an empty stomach. That there are more important things to consider than just being in line of doing good and upright. But isn't it easier to consider fighting against poverty and following morals? Than being able to commit crime and unrighteousness because we wanted to achieve our wants and needs? It's like cheating during exams to get a high grade the same way easier to study hard to get high grades. If we just work hard, there will be mountains hard enough to climb and trials that we can't survive. If we'd just work on our faith in God, live up our religion to help us to take the right path of doing the good way and at the end, we might get what we want and it might be greater than we'd expect.

What's your stand of MORALITY as a FILIPINO ?