What Bothers Me (Thieves)

My name is Lee Contreras, a citizen of the Republic of the Philippines. I was born and raised in this country, and I'm proud to be called a Filipino.

As a Filipino, I reside in the Philippines. (Obviously) The Philippines is a beautiful country. It holds a lot of natural wonders, the people too. The people are hospitable, that no matter what social class they are in, they'll always be able to face different kinds of people with a smile. Additionally, one good thing that Filipinos can brag about is their "bayanihan". It's not everyday that you get to see a country that, when in their deepest point would rather think of others rather than themselves. I find this unique amongst Filipinos, and I find it to be one of the few things that we can say and we can be proud of. Personally speaking, simply because of that, I could already say that "I'm proud to be a Filipino!"

However, though there are a lot of things that I can shout to the world and be proud of being a Filipino, there are also some things that would let me cower and be ashamed of being one. First of all would be our disunity with regards to the economy of our country. What's the root of this? Our elected officials. We elect these officials and trust them that they'd be the ones to lead us to a better tomorrow, but in reality that's not what they want. Some of the elected officials of our country abuse their power and use it in order to further enhance and make them richer. I don't believe that should be something that we aught to be proud of. However, that's not what I'd like to give emphasis on. What I would like to give emphasis on, would be the most common crime in our country. Stealing.

An example of carjacking by breaking the window of a car

Stealing is one of the most universal crimes. It doesn't exist only in the Philippines, but other countries too. Now, I wanted to give emphasis on stealing. Why? It happens everyday. It happens in simple things, objects such as ballpens and pencils. As a citizen, this bothers me. How can we flourish if our citizens themselves steal from others? This is the reason why the statement "the rich get richer, the poor just multiply" becomes concrete. Stealing, happens because some people don't want to work hard for what they want. Stealing, happens because people didn't work hard enough in order to sustain what their family needs. I believe that this is wrong. However, stealing doesn't simply line with blue-collar people. Our government steals much more money from us that we thought was possible. Just recently, the case of Janet Lim-Napoles surfaced. She stole wads of cash from us, through where? Taxes. How is that fair? We lose money even though we work hard? Our money goes to the people who just sit in their lavish seats while we, the people of the Philippines, rot here because we lack the resources? No matter how small, or how big the theft... If it's stealing, it's stealing. I believe that this should be remedied. 

I don't want to live in a country wherein people steal from each other.