Values and Ethics of Public Responsibility

By Virgil B. Vallecera

“Public office is a public trust. Public officers must all times be accountable to the people, serve them with utmost responsibility, integrity, loyalty, and efficiency, act with patriotism and justice, and lead modest lives,” this is in accord to Section 1 of Article XI of the 1987 Philippine Constitution on Accountability of Public Officers.

Indeed, such constitutional mandate does make a person look up to public officers since an extraordinary trust that requires extraordinary responsibility is vested by and from the people. However, it does not imply that public officers must look down unto the people; instead, they should look up to them as lords and masters, like in feudal societies, no matter how ill-fated a person maybe. For it should be noted that in a democratic society, it is from the people’s consent that the etched authority and power exercised by the officers is derived.

Since a high degree of trust is an obligation imposed with confidence and authority on public officers, a corresponding high degree of unequivocal dedication, integrity, and excellence among and from the said “servants and protectors” is required. Thus, public officers must commit all their resources for the benefit and satisfaction of the people.

It is but relative that the rising demands of the people for a better public service is parallel to the rising rate of development and advancement brought about by global competence. As a result, there is an expansion and broadening of the responsibilities of public officers. Governed by the values and ethics of public administration and individual morality, public responsibility is assumes by the said officers to provide an improved quality of life for all. Added to this perception, is the adoption of recognized codes of conduct, social reality, cultural norms, and ethical system for the formulation and implementation of public policies.

It is true that values and ethics and guide human behaviors in an institutional organization. They are relative to one another and never otherwise. Jose P. Laurel explains in his book Public Administration: The Business of Government such concept. “Personal values are developed as the individual’s response to social realities, while ethics operates as he attempts to do his task within the social norms for a work group or society.”

It is then essential to the general welfare and necessary to the preservation of the government, that public affairs be properly administered via acceptable norms. Public office as being a public trust must be kept in the hearts among the said officers for it illuminates the sanctity of their tasks and position. If they fail to do so, no popular government can ever survive without the confidence and trust of the people, which is the root of it all.

In the exact of once Supreme Court Chief Justice and Philippine president, Jose P. Laurel:

“Popular government is a magnificent three-storey building: The basic foundation is the people; the first storey is the Constitution which is the expression of their sovereignty; the second is the officialdom or a group of caretakers of the edifice; and in the third and highest storey is found the altar wherein is zealously kept and guarded the mystic fire which symbolizes the faith of the people.”

“Collapse of the foundation means destruction of the entire building, collapse of the first storey is necessarily the collapse of the second and third stories and the consequent reversion to the architectonic wisdom of the people, collapse of the second storey—officialdom—because of the misdeeds or disloyalty, is the demolition of the faith of the people; without faith, no popular government can ever hope t o live and survive.”

As such, public officers must enshrine a sense of values and ethical standards in order to make harmony with environmental innovations and rising demands. And once made to practice, respect is gained. From there, is can move people, organizations, as well as a country in turmoil.