Institutional Affiliation and Moral Courage - Article Example

By exposing the scam, Luy risked his life and was allegedly previously held in detention when his cousin suspected that he was already on the verge of exposing the scam. It was eventually revealed that there are apparent links to members of Congress, who allegedly are using these funds for their interests, with Janet Lim Napoles devising bogus non-government institutions that are apparent recipients of the funds (Wenceslao, 2013). As a result, the alleged perpetrator of the scam, Janet Lim Napoles, is currently being held on trial and incarcerated to determine the veracity of the allegations and to pinpoint other cohorts who could have been instrumental in designing the scam.

The person, Benhur Luy, is therefore commended for his moral courage in his decision to expose the scam. Even though it was his cousin who headed the scrupulous transactions, in possible cohorts with some lawmakers, Benhur Luy had decided to reveal the long-time secret. According to the report, “Benhur Luy said he worked with Janet Lim-Napoles for ten years, from 2002 to 2012. He was therefore in a position to describe the rise of the Napoles PDAF scam ‘business empire’” (Wenceslao, 2013, par. 10). The scam was reportedly described as follows: “Napoles wheeling and dealing with lawmakers and government bureaucrats (the roles reversed later, with lawmakers wheeling and dealing with Napoles); Luy and other members of Napoles’s staff preparing bogus papers for bogus non-government organizations and ghost beneficiaries and forging signatures; people’s money exchanging hands” (Wenceslao, 2013, par. 8). What was disturbing actually, was the fact that it took such a long time, ten years, before Benhur Luy was able to gather that much moral courage to expose the graft and corruption that had existed and had been perpetuated by his cousin, and including him.

The person should have been able to expose the scam at an earlier time frame so that the billions of pesos that should have been prevented from being stolen and pocketed by only a few selfish and corrupt lawmakers. If exposed earlier, these lawmakers should have been tried in court and the stiffest penalties should have been charged since, as lawmakers, they are expected to abide by the highest ideals of professionalism and conformity to ethical, legal, and moral standards. Likewise, the funds were supposed to be earmarked for programs and projects that would alleviate poverty and improve the quality of life of Filipinos.

Overall, from the situation, one learned that it takes a lot of sincere determination and steadfast faith to conform to ethical, moral, and legal standards before any person could stand up against corruption and immoral acts; especially when the person behaving that way is a part of one’s family or is a relative. A more stringent set of legal sanctions for punishing corrupt lawmakers and their cohorts or accomplices must therefore be designed to avoid designing scams such as this and reinforcing the values of integrity and moral courage should have been re-oriented to the people regularly to encourage exposure of graft, corruption, or wrong-doing.