LAOAG CITY, Philippines (UCAN) -- Maria Krizza Calucag admits that before she joined a contest sponsored by a Catholic business leaders' group here, she did not care that her classmates were cheating in exams.

The fourth-year student at Ilocos Norte National High School ignored the fact that people around her were cheating in tests, lying and stealing. Her rationalization, she told UCA News, was that Philippine society in general takes the value of honesty "for granted."

She said she is glad the Laoag Outreach program of the Brotherhood of Christian Businessmen and Professionals (BCBP) sponsored an oratorical contest on the topic of honesty for third- and fourth-year high school students. The event was held Nov. 15 at Laoag City Hall auditorium, 340 kilometers north of Manila.

Sixteen-year-old Calucag beat six other contestants from around Ilocos Norte province. As a result, she said, she will represent the province in the Ilocos regional contest, going against speakers from Ilocos Sur, La Union and Pangasinan provinces. The regional winner will then proceed to the national finals in February.

"I am glad that we have the BCBP reminding us about the value of honesty for the betterment of mankind," the student said. In her contest speech she had stressed, "Be honest even if others are not."

The BCBP is a Catholic Charismatic organization of businessmen and professionals that advocates the value of honesty at home, at work and in all levels of community life.

The nationwide “Be Honest” campaign it launched four years ago encourages people to practice truthfulness and sincerity, and to obey laws. According to Brotherhood member Marcial Cruz, the campaign especially targets youths, seeing them as "the hope of the nation to be honest.”

People commonly believe officials are involved in "a lot of anomalies and severe acts of corruption," and blame government leaders for corruption, Cruz elaborated. But after protesting and even unseating such leaders, she continued, the people do not do the other things needed to reform society, such as stopping corruption in their own lives.

"We seem not to be bothered that what starts in EDSA ends in EDSA," she said. EDSA, as Epifanio de los Santos Avenue is commonly known, is a highway through Metro Manila on which people staged mass protests that ousted presidents Ferdinand Marcos and Joseph Estrada. Another attempt to unseat current President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo did not succeed.

As Cruz assesses the situation, not all government officials are "bad" and everybody must do their share to reform Philippine society. She believes the motto for change should be "start with myself," because expecting honesty from others when one does not practice it "is nonsense."

Aida Krizzel Valdez, 15, a third-year student of Ilocos Norte College of Arts and Trades, is "happy" to have won third place, and to be practicing what she spoke about in her speech.

"I don't cheat during exams. I pay the right (school) contributions, and as a leader of our school group, I see to it that when we have extra money collected for our group project, I return the money (to classmates)," she said.

Aislinn Agadon, 14, of the Holy Spirit Academy, who shared third place with Valdez, felt "proud and happy" for the opportunity to express her views about the "valuable virtue" of honesty.

"Whenever I saw my classmates cheating during exams, I told our teacher immediately," even though classmates got angry, she said.

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