Persevering against corruption

Government exposure of corruption beyond the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH), civil society’s filing of a plunder case against Vice President Sara Duterte, and uncertainty about the fate of the Independent Commission for Infrastructure, are connected to the demands made at the Trillion Peso March barely three weeks ago. They warn of the need to continue support for the initiatives initially provoked by the infrastructure/budget scams, acknowledging not only the progress that has been made, but also the need for continuing action.

First, the public must continue the clamor for the punishment of all found guilty of corruption. While private sector players participated in the plunder, the guilt bears more heavily on the authorities entrusted with managing public funds. The corruption conspiracy implicates multiple levels and branches of government. Investigations must follow the evidence. No sacred cows are to be spared.

But also no shortcuts. Distinguishing between culpability and complicity and determining the degree of guilt and appropriate punishment requires respect for due process. Authorities with oversight over transactions that proved corrupt must accept accountability. President Marcos has veto power over budget insertions that could have mitigated the corruption. Command responsibility makes him accountable.

The 2026 budget, soon headed for his signature, places the President on the spot. Budget watchers have publicly flagged over P200 billion in possibly unconstitutional diversion and other dubious accounts. The DPWH and legislators have questioned some estimates; these need to be quickly resolved. The President has the authority to veto contested items or make their implementation conditional. Failure to act on these items will fuel public anger and the demand among some groups for resignation.

Observing due process is the means toward achieving justice. It is also an end goal, a value to which we aspire. Shortcuts undermine the democratic order that we must preserve and strengthen for the protection of our own rights. The recourse to extrajudicial killings that became the hallmark of the Duterte administration destroyed people’s lives and discredited the country. We now have the dubious distinction of sending Rodrigo Duterte as the first Asian former head of state to the International Criminal Court for crimes against humanity.

Criminals routinely exploit the due process appeal to escape punishment. The public must guard against the government allowing this to happen. The government’s anticorruption response must match the unprecedented scale the rot has reached; hence, the call for an independent, investigative body not controlled by the government and empowered to pursue its mission. No shortcuts, but also not business as usual.

Anticorruption advocates now campaign more vigorously against “fat” political dynasties. Their simultaneous control of offices that can check and balance each other to prevent conflict of interest transactions serves instead to conceal them from detection and punishment. Protest banners now explicitly connect corruption with political dynasties, the party list system, which has reinforced them, and the need to change both structures.

Even as he stressed the need for such systemic reforms, Cardinal Pablo Virgilio “Ambo” David cautioned in his comments during the Nov. 30 People Power Monument assembly against “burn[ing] down the whole house just because we want to catch and hold accountable the cockroaches and rats of our society.” The government has to enforce justice and punish the guilty. The DPWH must be cleaned up. It must also perform the tasks for which it was established. The country still needs roads, infrastructure, even flood protection.

In a similar vein, Ramon del Rosario, co-convenor with Cardinal David of the Roundtable for Inclusive Development, responded in a television interview to the skepticism about the government’s capacity for both reform and performance. Del Rosario pointed out that the administrations of former Presidents Cory Aquino, Fidel Ramos, and Benigno Aquino III introduced reforms recognized by international observers. But effective governance is a process sustained over time, not a task accomplished in one instant. It is a journey subject to wrong turns and backsliding, not a one-and-done destination.

For this mission, the public has the continuing right and responsibility to demand government transparency and accountability, first and as a foundational step, for the national budget it is now finalizing. The people formulating the budget were elected by the people, the budget is funded by taxes on the people, the budget belongs to the people. In the call of budget watch and its allies: “Aming buwis, aming boto, aming budget”—today and tomorrow.