In “Corruption with Philippine characteristics” (a witty allusion to socialism with Chinese characteristics), Manuel Quezon III points out the recent poll finding that a majority of Filipinos don’t consider tax evasion to be a form of corruption (along with deliberate regulatory non-compliance). 1
“WTF?!” was my initial reaction, self-righteously shocked at Filipinos’ casual immorality, and then thought about Hannah Arendt’s banality of evil. 2 In that vein, perhaps the surveyed Filipinos were thinking less of the inherent immorality of tax evasion, and more about the infuriating prospect of paying taxes at a time when bureaucratic corruption is again under the spotlight. “Can I not pay taxes, if it will only go to these thieves’ bank accounts?” was a common sentiment at the time, among my friends even. Tax evasion, then, can be charitably seen as an act of everyday resistance. Of course, there are many who’d rather not, and indeed do not, pay taxes just because they don’t feel compelled to.
(The killjoy in me replied to my friends, telling them that evidence points to corruption eating up only a minority percentage of public funds, which means that most of every peso they pay to the government still goes to legitimate uses. I get eye-rolls in return.)
There is an alternative, less charitable, and sadder explanation to the survey finding: Hanlon’s razor—“Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity.” Maybe the survey respondents just could not comprehend what the item in the survey meant (it was “Evading taxes or regulatory requirements”, or a Filipino translation thereof). What are regulatory requirements anyway? Isn’t tax evasion allowable? (Perhaps they’ve heard someone talk about legal tax avoidance.)
This would then point towards the sorry state of the Philippine educational system, and its failures not just in honing our intellects, but also in forming our characters.
1 Pulse Asia Research’s September 2025 Nationwide Survey on Corruption. See Table 1, page 5 in the media release.
2 Hannah Arendt’s notion is nuanced, misunderstood, and contested; see “What did Hannah Arendt really mean by the banality of evil?” by Thomas White.