Will the corruption scandal lead to civil unrest?

Two neighboring countries are embroiled in scandals involving their lawmakers. Both nations are experiencing angry citizens appalled by the magnitude of people’s money that their parliamentarians have pocketed for themselves. The upheaval is unfolding in one country’s virtual reality, while violent unrest has been taking place in the streets of the other country.

The two countries are the Philippines and Indonesia, which share many similarities. Both nations are archipelagos, each consisting of thousands of islands. They both have large populations relative to the limited land area of their territories. There is a huge gap that divides the rich and the poor in these two countries. Politicians in both countries are notorious for their levels of corruption.

The scandal in the Philippines began when President Marcos delivered his State of the Nation Address on July 25, during which he lambasted those engaged in defective flood control projects. He subsequently revealed the list of big contractors who have dubiously cornered billions of flood control projects. His exposè opened a can of worms. Previous media interviews of a contractor couple who flaunted their fleet of 40-plus luxury cars and unashamedly trumpeted that they got their billions from public works projects came out again. The vlogs of the children of contractors and politicians flaunting their expensive bags, jewelry, cars, houses, foreign trips, and filthy rich lifestyles spread like wildfire online. Flood control projects that were either nonexistent or that crumbled shortly after they were constructed went viral. Politicians who received election donations from contractors were exposed.

Then came days of unprecedented flooding in Metro Manila and other areas in the country, producing heartrending pictures of ordinary people wading through flooded roads, submerged houses and cars, and flood control projects that were easily washed away. Last Tuesday, Finance Secretary Ralph Recto testified before the Senate that up to 70 percent (as high as P118.5 billion) of government funds for flood control projects have been lost to corruption from 2023 to 2025 alone. All of the above notwithstanding, the fury of our citizens has merely been expressed on social media platforms, but no violent protest has so far followed on the ground.

In contrast, Indonesia’s current civil unrest started with protests over the monthly housing allowance of $3,000 (P168,000) for legislators, denounced for being more than 10 times the national average monthly minimum wage. What exacerbated the people’s fury was that the lawmakers’ allowances were granted even in the midst of cuts to education, health, and public works budgets. Demonstrators were also protesting against “corrupt elites” in the government, referring to favored business empires and military personalities.

The rallies turned violent when police forces drove an armored car through a group of protesters, killing a 21-year-old delivery driver in Jakarta. Angered citizens set fire to police headquarters, other government buildings, subway stations, and buses. The houses of several government officials were either ransacked or attacked with improvised bombs. At least eight people have died, hundreds have been injured, and 3,195 people have been arrested so far.

The level of corruption, at least the one exposed by the current scandals, appears more serious in the Philippines compared to Indonesia. The level of poverty is worse in the Philippines than in Indonesia. The most current official statistics peg the poverty rate at 10 percent for the Philippines and 8.57 percent for Indonesia. However, a Social Weather Stations survey in December 2024 shows that the number of Filipinos who rate themselves poor stands at a staggering 63 percent. Indonesia has surpassed the Philippines in per capita income, meaning that we are poorer as a country compared to Indonesia.

Why is the Philippine reaction to its current corruption scandal shorn of civil unrest on the ground, unlike what is being experienced in Indonesia? Because of the milder protestations of our people, one netizen describes us as the “most apathetic country in the world.” The previous periods when our country experienced widespread civil unrest in the streets occurred in the late 1960s up to the declaration of martial law in 1973, and during the aftermath of the assassination of former senator Ninoy Aquino in 1983, which culminated in the Edsa People Power Revolution in 1986.

Will there be a point when Filipinos get so fed up with corruption that it drives our people to burn buildings and ransack politicians’ houses? With our country’s ever-worsening level of corruption, our politicians appear bent on taunting and goading their countrymen to follow in Indonesia’s footsteps.

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