Culture of Corruption & Culture of Poverty

Biklish has an interesting post on how the cultures of poverty and corruption were embedded in the Filipino psychology. The posts say that it's a result of the legitimization provided by the government, the people and the Church.

A portion of the post is as follows:

[...] a few individuals in the government became greedy. They became corrupt until corruption became a virus. By their silence, the people seemed to have allowed the virus to spread...

To give moral legitimacy to corruption, the Church also had her part. For instance, during the Marcos-Aquino presidential elections, Cardinal Sin was at the forefront saying: Ang pera sa bulsa, ang boto sa balota...

This was further strengthened when the high-ranking members of the Church admitted accepting money from PAGCOR, or money from gambling operations...

But more than the strengthening of the culture of corruption, the Church also has a role to play in strengthening the culture of poverty. Intentionally or not, she had been espousing a mis-contextualized Biblical passage “Blessed are the poor for theirs is the kingdom of heaven”... In the proper context, though, poverty should not be with a child of God. Again, basing from the Bible and even the Q’ran, man was created in the image of God. And God is not poor. As a matter of fact, God gave man the authority over everything on earth. Man can utilize that, etc., etc.

Of course, to be blamed also are the people. They accept things without questions. And they treat alleged authorities with pure reverence. Just like their treatment for the government. Just like their treatment with the Church. Otherwise, another people power uprising should have transpired even without the leadership of the Church[...]