True public service: Politics should be a mission, not a business
The modern political arena has increasingly begun to resemble a corporate boardroom, where success is measured not by the long-term health of the nation but by quarterly results—or in this case, the next election cycle. Across the globe, and particularly within the Philippines, we are witnessing the dangerous transformation of public service into a transactional business model. In this model, the citizen is a customer to be bought with short-term incentives, and the nation’s future is a liability that does not fit on this year’s balance sheet. By prioritizing immediate “wins” over foundational growth, politicians are effectively bankrupting the future of the people they are sworn to serve.
The fundamental flaw in treating politics as a business is a misunderstanding of the “product.” In business, the goal is profit maximization and shareholder value, often at the expense of anything that does not yield a return within a fiscal year. When this logic is applied to governance, the “shareholders” become the political donors and the “voting blocs” that provide an immediate return on investment: power.
True public service, however, is a debt to the future. It requires making decisions today that may not bear fruit for 20 years, long after the current leader has left office. A business can pivot or fold if a venture fails; a nation cannot. When a politician chooses a “band-aid” solution—like a one-time cash subsidy or a superficial infrastructure project—over deep structural reform, they act like a CEO trying to pump a stock price before an exit. They prioritize their own career trajectory over the sovereign survival of the state.
Nowhere is this short-termism more evident than in the persistent, systemic neglect of research and development (R&D). As I have argued repeatedly, funding for R&D is the most accurate barometer of a leader’s true commitment to their country. While the Unesco-recommended benchmark for a developing nation is 1 percent of gross domestic product, our expenditure on R&D has historically languished around a mere 0.32 percent. Why is this the case? Because R&D is the antithesis of a “quick win.” Scientific breakthroughs in agriculture, medicine, or renewable energy take decades of trial, error, and heavy investment. To a politician who views their office as a business venture, R&D is a “bad investment.” It is high-risk, expensive, and, most importantly, the “pogi points” (prestige) from a breakthrough might be claimed by a political rival 10 years down the line. It is far “safer” to pave a road that will crack in three years than to fund a laboratory that might revolutionize the economy in 20. This cowardice ensures that the nation remains a consumer of foreign technology rather than a producer of its own.
In our nation’s context, this manifests as an obsession with “ribbon-cutting” projects. There is a perverse incentive to choose hard infrastructure—concrete that people can see and touch—over the soft infrastructure of human intellect and scientific capability. We see billions poured into projects branded with a politician’s name and face, while the Department of Science and Technology and our state researchers are left to beg for crumbs. This is not just a failure of budgeting; it is a failure of vision. By treating the national budget like a marketing budget for their next campaign, politicians are ensuring that the Philippines remains stuck in a cycle of “ayuda” (aid) and “pave-and-paint” governance. We are building the facade of a modern nation on a foundation of intellectual poverty.
If we continue to let politicians run our country like a short-sighted corporation, we will eventually run out of “future” to borrow from. The role of a leader is not to “win” at politics but to serve the nation. Service requires the humility to plant trees under whose shade the leader will never sit. It is time to demand a shift in the political ledger. We must stop rewarding the “businessmen” of politics who offer us quick, shiny trinkets in exchange for long-term prosperity. Only when we prioritize R&D, long-term educational reform, and structural economic shifts over the next election cycle can we truly say we are being “served.” The Philippines cannot afford to be a business any longer; it must become a mission.
MARCIANO L. LEGARDE,
marcianolegarde@gmail.com
