THIS IS OUR COUNTRY

Most recently, two issues have badly affected the Philippines. The PDAF (or commonly known as "pork barrel") scam, and the recent crisis in Zamboanga city. The story of the pork barrell scam originates with the PDAF or priority development assistance fund. This fund comes from taxes and is distributed to politicians in order to fund small scale projects on a local level. Lately politicians, most notably, Janet Lim Napoles have been exploiting these funds for their personal gain through the use of fake establishments, projects and organizations. Because of this,over 10 billion pesos have been stolen from the funds which were supposed to benefit the people of the Philippines. This affects both, the rich and the poor alike. Instead of these funds going to the fixing of roads and putting up buildings and infrastructures, these things instead go to politicians who waste it on lavish parties or cars etc. Meanwhile,In Zamboanga city, after a peace talk that went wrong and a scuffle at the Zamboanga city hall, the MNLF or Moro national liberation front began taking hostages and burning down houses of the citizens of Zamboanga. This forced the people fear and panic as the siege continued and the people were forced to flee their homes and take refuge in large gymnasiums. This has a large effect on the economy of Zamboanga as well as the people who were witnesses to the tragic event. These situations reflect the worst impacts of greed, corruption, and war in our nation. Our country has suffered massive blows, but it is not too late to repair the damages.

By: Andrei Wee, Gregory Tan

What's happening in The Philippines

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Help our nation

Although the damage to our country is already done,it is not too late to act. The key to rebuilding our country lies in the people (politicians, civilians, students, everyone). First of all, the government must act responsibly on these issues. The Perpetrators of the "pork barrell scam" must stand trial and be brought to justice for their crimes against the Filipino people, so that the corrupt officials will know that the country will not tolerate corruption and show that there is still justice in the Philippines. Furthermore, the PDAF must be abolished, so that it will never again be used as a means of stealing the money of the Filipino people. These are the things that the government must do, but what can we, the people do? The best thing that we Filipinos can do is to be united as Filipinos and show care for all these things happening to the country. We must stand united against these crises, whether it is through the means of prayer or organized protests. We must stand together to fight corruption and show the government what the people want, if we speak as one people and one nation then our voices will be heard. To the people affected in Zamboanga, we must also be one with them. Promote peace and understanding for Muslim brothers, because even if we're Christians, Buddhists, or Muslims we are still Filipinos, the moment we fight with one another, war and hate plague our nation. So let us all stay united as a country, after all, we are Filipinos, we all want what's best for the country. Here is a quote I heard from a Tv show: "Usually one person does'nt solve the solution, but 100 people with 1 percent of the solution, that will get it done."

By: James Yap and Paco Angliongto

Individual Action Plans: By: Phil Co In order to make sure that this doesn’t happen again. The government should make Janet Lim Napoles testify the names of the officials who took part in this scam in order to prevent them to do so again. Another thing to do is to abolish the PDAF so that it won’t ever be misused again. In order to do that, it will take a lot of convincing to the congressmen and president. The various rallies and protests are a good start because it shows the government that the Filipino people are united to fight against these issues, but perhaps we can do more. Maybe students can put up posters to raise awareness and warn the government officials about the threat pork barrel posts and it’s negative effects. Aside from the pork barrel scam the people of Zamboanga also need assistance. We should all give what we can to them, money and donations so that they may be able to rebuild the damage caused by the fighting. We should all promote peace because lack of peace is what caused the crisis. Show care and understanding for our muslim brothers and cease all discrimination, Christian or muslim, we are all Filipinos. Although our country is reeling from damages, It will only get better unless we stop greed and spread peace. By:Andrei Wee Tragedies such the pork barrel scam and the issue in Zamboanga has befallen our nation, and everyone is affected, politicians, and most especially the filipino citizens. Though some may not feel affected by these tragedies such as people with enough wealth to shelter or provide for themselves in light of these said tragedies,they will never be able to hide the one truth that they too live in this nation which thereby makes the problems of this nation their problem as well,because we are one country which binds us to one another under one roof which is the Philippines, my point is that we are all together under one nation whose problems are the problems of those who live under this nation. Yes the funds of this country are going down, and yes lives have been lost, but we fail to see the big picture, and it's not what the tragedies are doing to us as individuals,it's what the tragedies are doing to us as a nation,in short it's tearing us apart,proving that we are nation in constant conflict and bigotry, a nation that doesn't seem like a nation in one roof with hands held together and hearts in harmonic unison, it's far from that, as of the moment we are a nation of dissociation in one battlefield with gunfire everywhere, no one will win the war..in the end no one will survive if we stay as nation who can't hold their hands and hearts together. The government can start by making programs to donate goods to the people in Zamboanga and investigations to the corrupt people who partook in the pork barrel scam, and you my reader can help too by donating whatever you can and by supporting any program that offers help to your countrymen. There is an I in nation, and it means "I can make a difference". James Yap: Yap James: The Priority Development Assistance Fund scam, or more commonly known as the Pork Barrel scam, is one of the more recent scandals to have struck the Philippines, and struck it did. Not only is the Pork Barrel scam one of the most highlighted and featured news to ever occur in the Philippines, but it has also led to thousands of peoples protesting against the government and the parties involved in the scandal The PDAF is simply put, funding given to the members of the Congress from the people through taxing. The funding is used by the government to fund priority development projects and programs of the Philippine government that were mostly small-scale or on the local level. In 2013, the Philippine Daily Inquirer exposed the fact that there were alleged misuse of the Priority Development Assistance Fund. Over ten billion pesos has been defrauded in the course of the scam and taken by various members of the Congress and alleged mastermind, Janet Lim-Napoles. The taxes paid by the Philippines’ citizens, instead of going to government funding to improve the county, are going into the pockets of corrupt and manipulative officials. Janet Lim-Napoles, herself, has been accused of stealing the PDAF funds through various fake projects, foundations, organizations and through the manufacturing of receipts, fabricating names, forging of official’s signatures and the creation of at least 20 fake NGOs. Since the scam has been exposed, the Pork Barrel scam evoked public outrage and protests all throughout Philippines, the Million People March being a primary example. Demands for the arresting of the various officials linked to the scandals and for the abolishment of the pork barrel system have spread across the country along with demands to account for all misused funds and criticism of the national government. Though primarily a political scandal, the Pork Barrel scam has also grievously affected the Philippines’ economy, society and culture, as it affects every single citizen of the Philippines, both the rich and the poor. Unfortunately, the damage of the Pork Barrel scam to the Philippines is already done. It has immensely weakened the institutions of the government, provoked public outrage and demoralization and led to economical problems in the Philippines. The only thing that the Philippines can and must do as of now is to rebuild and recover from this damage. In the case of the Pork Barrel, there are various solutions that the Philippines can opt to follow in order to rebuild itself into a stronger and more united nation. The first solution, and arguably the most popular and demanded one, would be for the government to arrest the various parties participating in the scam, such as Janet Lim-Napoles, Bong Revilla, Juan Ponce Enrile and Jinggoy Estrada. More than to just simply serve the law, the arresting of the parties involved will appease and satisfy the demands of the people, and to enforce the

idea that there is still justice in the Philippines combating corruption. Accompanying that would be the abolishment of the PDAF entirely, as to prevent misuse of it and satisfy the demands of the people. Also, it will be either impossible or nearly impossible for the PDAF to continue on, as it will forever be tainted by this scam and will have a destroyed reputation. The following are mostly solutions that the government must undertake, so what about the people? Unlike as it may seem, for the people, especially the youth, is through prayer. Religion is one of the biggest factors of our country, as we are nearly entirely sporting one dominant religion. Whether or not one would admit it, religion does in fact play a very important role in our country, especially in politics. It is essentially the voice of the public or the people. Simply attending mass or prayer in numbers really gives an impact on the government as to what we can do. More than that, religion has always long since serves as a bond of the people, and especially in the Philippines, it served as a particularly strong bond that keeps the people united. Through religion, we can be united, which is so important for the people to be right now in our state of crisis. The various rallies and protests that the Filipinos form shows the government that we really do care and what we want. We should have our voice be heard, and through doing so, we stand united. Beneath all of that, the simple act of being a good Filipino citizen can have a more profound effect than one may think. We are the people. We may be damaged, desperate and angry, but we will always be the people of our country. The people are the examples for our young, and the youth today may be the future leaders of the Philippines tomorrow. If we can start being good Filipino citizens now, we can rebuild our nation into one that is stronger and united together, free from graft, greed, war and corruption. It will take long, surely. But we can start today, not just for the Philippines now, but for the Philippines of the future. Gregory Tan: Tragedies such the pork barrel scam and the issue in Zamboanga has befallen our nation, and everyone is affected especially the filipino citizens. Though some may not feel affected by these tragedies such as people with enough wealth to shelter or provide for themselves in light of these said tragedies,they will never be able to hide the one truth that they too live in this nation which thereby makes the problems of this nation their problem as well, yet we always think to ourselves is the government really doing something about it its always the government we think about but why dont we look at ourselves first always think on what we can do for these people and how we can do our part in solving the worst of problems. for the pork barrel scam we just need to always hope and believe that justice will be served for the innocent lives affected by the billions stolen from the hard working men and women who devote their lives in hoping that their money goes for the better use and not just to be squandered on foolish and pathetic wants. for the crisis of warfare in zamboanga we just need to donate goods clothes for the people and always as a nation pray to god for support and wisdom. but my point here is that we as a nation need to shape up and address not only our daily day to day basis of problems but as much as possible we need to address our nation’s problems as well so that all will be well for the filipino citizens of this very country

Editor in chief : Phil Co Writers: James Yap Andrei Wee Gregory Tan Paco Angliongto Cover by Phil Co

Sources: http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/focus/09/28/13/fighting-over-zamboanga-crisis-continues http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/496977/palace-confirms-zamboanga-crisis-is-over http://opinion.inquirer.net/62211/what-the-pork-barrel-scam-reveals-about-us http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/443297/nbi-probes-p10-b-scam

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