Philippine E-Journals

Symbols of Integrity: A Semiotic Study of "Transparency, Accountability, Justice, and Fairness" in Government Discourse

Dennis B. Anduyan

Discipline: Philosophy

 

Abstract:

Governments say a great deal about themselves before a single policy is implemented - through seals, portals, posted budgets, and pro- gram names that promise transparency, accountability, justice, and fairness. This qualitative study asked what those promises are actu- ally built from. Using semiotic analysis, it examined the signs Davao de Oro's provincial government uses on its official online portal to convey the four values, then asked what those signs imply about gov- ernance legitimacy once matched against the wider empirical record. Transparency surfaced most often in the business and investment cli- mate, trade and commerce, public participation, information and communication technology, climate adaptation, fiscal budget disclo- sure, the policy and regulatory framework, and disaster risk commu- nication. Accountability was carried mainly by education and skills re- porting, fiscal and revenue management, audit and infrastructure dis- closure, watershed and forest stewardship, solid waste control, and inter-agency collaboration. Justice appeared through peace-and-or- der messaging, rural electrification, livelihood generation, skills certi- fication, and land-use compliance. Fairness was expressed through social welfare services, disaster risk reduction, agriculture and fisher- ies support, health access, housing, and water and sanitation pro- gramming. Reading these symbols against the broader literature pro- duced two organizing dimensions: Structural Integrity, concerning how governance is worded and represented, and Performative Legit- imacy, concerning whether the symbol is actually enacted. The two do not always move together, and where they diverge, the study argues, is where public trust is most at risk.