TEAM RP
PRESS STATEMENT:
REFORM, NOT RHETORIC
We are the generation of Filipinos who stand before you today, filled with high hopes for our nation despite the convoluted and confounding events unfolding before us. We acknowledge that we have tolerated and contributed to a system of dysfunction, corruption, and selfishness not only in public governance but also in other spheres of daily life. But we also realize that, just as we have contributed to the problem engulfing our country today, so can we work proactively to set things right. Therefore, we are here before you today to declare our commitment to pursuing TRUTH, ACCOUNTABILITY, and REFORM for the sake of millions of Filipinos who are hungry, desperate for, and deserving of real progress.
While the rest of the country is hooked on the unfolding telenovela that the recent spate of scandals have become, we see that the cycle of greed, malpractice, and corruption has gone on for generations already, and has been inherited by each generation after it. Though our outcry has been brought out by our gross appreciation of what has been going on and revealed to the public these days, we believe that anyone in public office is accidental to our call for genuine, fundamental, and systemic reforms. We will continue fighting for our cause regardless of who is in power.
In our pursuit of TRUTH, we believe that every citizen should be given the right and the freedom to access information—about how they are being governed, how public resources are being allocated, how their officials (whether elected or appointed) are performing their duties. If we are to effectively participate in democratic processes, then we must have access to information that we will need to make intelligent decisions.
In our pursuit of ACCOUNTABILITY, we believe that people should be held accountable to and by the public whom they serve—and not merely to and by the Powers that Be that direct their careers and their paychecks. We believe in upholding retributive justice by prosecuting unlawful acts and pressuring wrongdoers to correct their mistakes and effectively prevent such problems from happening again. Many crooks—not only in government but also in the private sector—have gotten away with their crimes simply because we chose to look away, let them go, or negate our laws and judicial processes. We have to make our democracy work by ensuring that our institutions are functional, regardless of the personalities within them.
In our pursuit of GENUINE REFORMS, we believe that specific policies, programs, and practices should be enacted and implemented—and others abolished—to bring about real, tangible solutions to age-old problems. The public's outrage and frustration should be channeled into efforts to change not just governments and personalities, but entire systems as well. We must act as a people to ensure that appropriate reforms are effected and that results are continuously monitored, evaluated, and revised in order to maintain ethical effectiveness. People change, times change; so, too, must systems change accordingly.
We may be young and lacking in experience, but we do not fall short of the passion, the belief, and the hope that the Philippines can still be a country to be proud of—not only in the future, but also in the here and now. We hope that our actions will encourage our fellow Filipinos to set aside partisanship, political mudslinging and grandstanding, personality bashing, and the protection of familial ties or friendship in favor of pursuing higher goods that will benefit each and every one of us.
Since the beginning of our collective history, many men and women—perhaps including you, in some instances—stood up and risked their own lives so that we in this generation may have the liberties we now enjoy. So now, we are putting these same liberties to good use to rise—rise above the system of inequity, injustice, and ineffectiveness that this current system has bred. We urge you: push for change, BE the change.
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