Gabriel Ruedas

1. Give your own understanding of “Ethical Behavior”. How can it be applied in corporations
/enterprises? Do you think success can be achieved if corporations will adopt/apply ethical
behavior? Justify your answer.

My own understanding about “Ethical Behavior” is that it talks about what other people
typically think on what they perceive of good values in life. Ethical Behavior has principles that
include honesty, fairness, equality, dignity, diversity and individual rights, all of these things are
essential and important in a workplace and in a corporation. “Never do to others what you would
not like them to do to you.” That was once said by Confucius, I believe that if corporations/
enterprises can follow this quote then they can achieve those things that I have mentioned
above, Honesty, Fairness, Equality, Dignity, Individual RIghts and Diversity then they can
achieve this. Any person will feel disrespected if someone were to offend them even in any
workplace. A Corporation/ Enterprise can achieve success if each and everyone of the
employees and clients were to follow this, Harmony and good relationships is what improves a
corporation. Every Employee should feel safe mentally and physically knowing that they are in
a safe place where they can be treated as equals and will not be judged by the color of their
skin and anything that is related to the matter. By having a good “Ethical Behavior” in a
working environment improves the employees mind and their progress in their work.

2. Make an analysis/observation on how the following values (character, integrity, morals) are
manifested by the following groups of people during this time of crisis:

a. Politicians
You can tell alot about a person and his reputation as a human being. Not all politicians have a
good reputation, but you can tell who are those real politicians who want to serve their country and
those who have a good intention for the community in this time of crisis. During these three weeks of
lockdown and quarantine I am updated with the current happenings in our government, and what I can
say is that almost the majority of them do not care, are not honest and are ignorant. One example of
the “Dishonesty” part is the Bongbong Marcos case, there people in Marcos’ team saying that he
tested negative for the CoVid 19, but then the test results came out and he tested Positive, the good
thing about the situation is that the former senator didn’t went out of his home. Another case is Koko
Pimentel’s case where he did not tell the public that he was feeling unwell and that he tested positive.
The Senator should’ve told the public about his situation and quarantined himself, he endangered all
the people whom he may have contacted with. In the Quezon City case, Their Mayor, Mayo Joy
Belmonte has been acting incompetently and has been acting like a child in recent news. She lashed
out in social media against her critics. From where I see, I can see that she is doing her job out for the
sake of “I think that’s good” and “At Least I did something” even though what she did was wrong and
lacking. She was saying that she released some relief goods to some communities in Quezon City at
the price of 2,000.00 Php for each family, when they received the “relief goods” that she was talking
about, it did not look like a 2,000.00 Php worth of reliefs. It looked like a 200/ 500 Php of relief goods.
Another thing is on how she distributed the relief goods. They used a Garbage Truck to carry the relief
goods and distributed it to the different households in Quezon city. That is some high-level indecency.
Next is the President, he is not acting like a leader, in his freshly released statement (April 03, 2020) in
his national address, he only ridiculed and blasted the lawyer, Chel Diokno and only addressed the
current crisis in a short time. And the way he made his latest order about the shooting of the leftists or
in the headlines of ABS-CBN “People who defies the enhanced quarantine lockdown” (more from that
later on in the corporation part) is a very poorly made order. The president and his people should be
focusing more on the betterment of the country not ruling with an iron fist and making harsh orders.
No matter what this issue is, Killing is Murder. On the positive side, There were some politicians who
showed that their heart is for the people. Vico Sotto, Manny Paqciao, Isko Moreno, Chel Diokno, Leni
Robredo and others that I do not know the name of, but know that there are some mayors who are
prioritizing their people. I have great respect for these people. They have shown that they are willing
to sacrifice for their people, have shown great character, integrity and morals , that is why there are
many people who admire them.

b. Ordinary Citizens
During the quarantine there are a lot of citizens having a hard time following the rules
of the lockdown. Especially in Manila where almost everyone is out on the streets. There were some
who respected the rules and stayed indoors, but the majority of the lower class went out, and almost
all of them had a reason on why they were going out, due to food and other things. Although, there
were still some who violated the law because of unnecessary reasons. There were some good
samaritans who helped the homeless by giving them food and water as well as tissue papers, that
shows their character and using their “Privileged” status into good use. Some were honest about the
situation on how they are struggling with the quarantine, and then there were also some who
protested and charged at the authority like one incident in Quezon City. Some people can’t be blamed
for their actions during this time especially the lower class, given if the government is totally not
helping them survive in these hard times. I believe that people should be helping their fellow citizens
and do what they can to help each other survive this crisis.

c. Netizens
In the online aspect, due to the country being on lockdown, majority of the people are
on their phones and most of them, actually majority of them have been voicing their criticisms towards
the Philippine Government, and in my part I am on their side that the Philippine Government is doing a
bad job in handling the situation. Some People in the internet has been criticizing all the incompetent
so-called “leaders” in our country and there are some who still supports the government and see no
wrong in their actions, and I am not against anyone’s political beliefs, but I believe that at times like
this, peoples should see more clearly on who really are helping country and its citizens and not get
blinded by the words of some Politicians who clearly doesn’t care about their citizens. There are some
who troll (trick and joke other people online) other netizens, and some who fight other people who do
not side with their own political beliefs. It’s like a Civil war on the internet these days, especially on
twitter and facebook. You can clearly see their character on whom they side . I on the other hand does
not side with anyone, I’m not a DDS and I am not a “Dilawan”. I side with the betterment of our
country, and there are also people who want this to be over now.

d. Corporations
There are some corporations who are helping in lessening the spread of the virus, for example
like some convenience stores and fast food restaurants both of which are practicing the distancing
rule. One corporation I want to talk about is ABS-CBN. Recently some netizens have noticed the
difference between their headlines and to other headlines (like GMA). Their headlines differed quite a
lot and were exposed to cutting out some parts of the president’s statement and were using clickbait
headlines. This exposes their integrity as a corporation and as well as their reputation. Some are even
saying that they should be cancelled now, ABS-CBN shouldn't be doing this kind of tactics. The
summary of this is that the majority of the corporations here in the country are doing their part,
although I like to believe that some companies should have lowered the prices of their products due to
the pandemic, but that’s just me.

e. Government Agencies
Some Government agencies are doing their best in preventing the rise of the Covid cases. I
just want to point out that sometimes Govt Agencies slip up and say the wrong things for example the
case of the DOH where in social media they thanked the virus because of what they thought was to be
thankful for, naturally what they said was backlash and they immediately removed their post. I want to
say that the DOE should make an exemption just this once for students to be safe and exempt them
from their school work. They should be thinking about the health of the students at this time,
especially to those students who lack internet access. The virus is not the one who is going to kill the
student, but the stress itself and it may weaken the immune systems of some students, that is just my
take. Governments should also be helping the DOH and Frontliners more by providing them the
necessary items needed to combat the virus and they should be compensated well.