Press Release
March 4, 2007

Recto Backs Educational Drive vs Corruption

Sen. Ralph Recto has commended the Department of Education (DepEd) and the Office of the Ombudsman for publishing a guide against corruption and distributing the copies of the book in schools, colleges and universities.

Creating public awareness on corruption and its many faces certainly would enhance the civic culture of Filipinos and encourage them to demonize illegal, illicit and immoral practices, he said.

Speaking on Sunday before leaving Northern Mindanao , Recto explained that people have to know that corruption tears the nation apart, reduces public finance and wastes resources that should have gone to the delivery of basic services.

Overpricing, huge commissions and under-the-table deals are anathema to a mature democracy, he quipped.

Teaching the youth at an early age to know the ABCs of graft and corruption would inculcate in them the value of honest living and good public service.

Corruption stems from the evil that is greed for money and the lust for pelf. It is selfishness that has no place in public serviced, Recto stressed.

He agreed with DepEd Secretary Jesli Lapus that educating the youth is one way of instilling civic culture among our students, who would comprise the next generation of the countrys leaders.

Consisting of 52 teaching modules, the Graft and Corruption Prevention Education Teaching Exemplars is a great leap in the fight against an evil that must nipped in the bud.

According to DepEd, a total of 203,113 copies of the book will be used in 44,412 public elementary and high schools all over the country.

Central to these modules is the teaching of such virtues as honesty, integrity, professionalism and simple living.

Recto stressed that the laudable project was partly financed by the European Commission (EC), the US Agency for International Development (USAID), both of which have been concerned with the deleterious effects of corruption and graft in both developed and developing countries.

Values formation is something that we should always promote, Recto emphasized. I hope that more and more pupils and students would come out to denounce corruption in all its forms.

A citizenry that is opposed to corruption is a citizenry that knows the virtue of accountability, transparency and honesty, he noted.

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