In the fourth week of the campaign, senatorial candidate Jiggy Manicad urged the government to start with the young in its anti-corruption campaign.
Manicad, a multi-awarded broadcast journalist, lamented that one of the driving forces behind his decision to run for a “higher level of public service” was the unending spate of issues he reported on which stemmed from corruption.
“As a reporter, you see the poorest of the poor experiencing lack of proper housing, lack of medicines, lack of social services… The Filipino people are suffering because of corruption, and it has to stop,” he explained in a press statement.
Manicad maintained that for an anti-corruption campaign to be more effective, it should start in the elementary grades.
“The Department of Education should include the government’s anti-corruption campaign in the GMRC (Good Manners and Right Conduct) subject,” Manicad said.
Aside from the GMRC, the DepEd could also incorporate the campaign in subjects such as English, Filipino, social sciences and the arts.
“Young Pinoys should be staging plays, writing essays, doing projects that depict the value of integrity against the ill effects of corruption in society,” the former broadcast journalist said.
“We should make more educational materials inculcating the young that there is a level of transparency and honesty expected especially of government workers and officials,” Manicad added.
Manicad posited that corruption is widespread in society and that it would take decades to erase the malady from the people’s psyche.