New oath of office for election winners sought

MANILA, Philippines - A group called Quantum Reform Movement (QRM) urges winning candidates in the May 10, 2010 general election to take a reformulated oath of office and affirmation to warrant good governance.

Pursuant to Section 23, Article VII of the Revised Administrative Code, the new oath of office seeks to help fight graft and corrupt practices in government offices.

Introduced as a government reform formula, the new oath of office and affirmation for elective and appointive public officials and employees works to inspire as spiritual attraction to a vow that the oath taker and affirmant would find it difficult to willfully give up.

It impresses on the oath taker and affirmant ethical and metaphysical values which will engender public confidence and seal national unity.

The following oath of office and affirmation shall be required for national and local elective and appointive officials and employees:

“I, (______) or (______), after having been elected/appointed to the position of (_____), with God as my witness, do hereby solemnly swear and affirm that I will faithfully and conscientiously fulfill the duties of my present position, obey, defend and preserve the Constitution of the Philippines, laws, rules, official issuances, regulations and ordinances, commit myself to the tenets and ideals of democracy, do justice to everyone, fairly and appropriately exercise the powers, rights and prerogatives of my office, renounce and suppress all forms of graft and corrupt practices in government, confine my income to the salary and emolument which by law I am entitled to receive, and consecrate myself to public service. Aware of the dire consequences of God’s wrath upon me and my family for contumacy and excesses, I will not break this vow. So help me God.”

The new oath of office and affirmation has virtual social and psycho-spiritual functions that cultivates in the oath taker and affirmant the positive values from which good governance springs.

A promising mechanism to start moral regeneration in government service, the suggested reform formula which is forceful and cleansing works as a deterrent to committing anomalies in government.