Dumaguete City Vice Mayor Woodrow Maquiling called on government officials to be examples of honesty, and urged the public to take part in the campaign against graft and corruption.

In his privilege speech during the Sangguniang Panlungsod council session Thursday, Maquiling said graft and corruption is not only a “gigantic loss” in terms of pesos and centavos, but, in some ways, has affected the ethical values and moral conduct, not only of public officials but of the people as well.

Maquiling said graft and corruption has always been a two-way affair, because government involves transactions between officials and the public. “The public therefore, in some ways is partly to blame,” he added.

He said attempts have been made to address this “cancer” such as government reorganization, change of leadership, creation of anti-graft bodies, but that, corruption is getting more sophisticated.

He also said fighting corruption is a difficult task, but as long as there is a political will on the part of the government and the desire to impress on the need to stress the positive Filipino values like delicadeza, integrity and honesty, the war, in the end, will be won.

Maquiling said the public should cooperate by filing their complaint against government official involved in corruption.

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