DAVAO CITY, Philippines—The Philippines remains in the control of oligarchs because the government is beholden to them, according to Chief Justice Reynato Puno.

“If you look at the wealth of the country, [you will see that] the control is in the hands of very few people,” Puno said on Friday evening at the launch of the Moral Force Movement.

Because the government also remains beholden to “those who control the wealth of the nation,” a system that can help Filipinos move forward is not possible, said the Chief Justice, who has been campaigning for national moral recovery.

“If you have that kind of predicament, we will never have a healthy democratic system. The rich are very few and the poor are the multitude,” he said.

Puno named the fundamental problems afflicting the country as “the lack of morality, the weakness of our ethics, the problem of inequitable distribution of wealth, the problem of poverty and the problem of peace and order.”

“All these problems [amount to] weakness of values,” he said, adding that these were the issues on which the Moral Force Movement was focused.

Puno stressed that the movement was apolitical.

“This movement will not endorse anybody,” he said in reference to those preparing to run in the 2010 elections.

He said, however, that it might coalesce with other movements that had similar objectives.

Corruption in gov’t

Puno said the next president of the country should “rid the government of corruption and address the problem of poverty.”

The middle class should be strengthened because it is “the backbone of democracy,” he said.

If not, he said, “we will have a synthetic democracy.”

While government officials should move the country forward, the Filipino people should help strengthen the moral fiber that would uplift the country, the Chief Justice said.

He called on government regulators to exercise autonomy and not surrender their freedom of decision to the dictates of the oligarchs.

“Otherwise, we will have a few oligarchs running the country, [with] so many impoverished,” he said.

Humble contribution

Puno said the Moral Force Movement was “our humble contribution to the need for change or transformation in our people and our country.”

He said another way for the country to change was for Filipinos to revert back to hallowed customs and tradition, such as “hospitality and the bayanihan (cooperative) spirit.”

Asked to comment on continuing efforts to have him run for president, Puno gave his usual reply that the decision lay with his grandchildren.

“They should know that I have a fourth grandchild. They better consult with this grandchild,” he said. With a report from Eldie Aguirre, Inquirer Mindanao