Our institutions are collapsing under the weight of corruption and toxic politicking.
It has come to the point where our institutions can no longer be relied upon to uphold justice or defend the nation’s true interest. Politicians engage in a feeding frenzy of corruption and political jockeying while the people are given the bare minimum so as not to revolt. The system of checks and balances is rigged to shield the powerful.
All these have resulted in widespread institutional distrust and it is completely self inflicted on government’s part. This is not hyperbole – it’s the hard truth, borne by facts. Consider the following:
Congress
The P6.3-trillion national budget of 2025 is a grotesque representation of the runaway corruption that festers in congress. Some P879 billion was hijacked by legislators and hidden in “unprogrammed appropriations” and other budget insertions. That’s 18 percent of the national budget channeled to pork! Flood control got P257 billion. Meanwhile, education, infrastructure and health care suffered deep budget cuts.
How can we trust a Congress that engineers institutional plunder?
Moreover, Congress has ceased to serve as a check and balance mechanism since the majority vote according to political interest. Unqualified legislators are aplenty, given the proliferation of political dynasties. Legislation is of poor quality. The House is a money pit, not worth its cost.
The Senate
The legislative record of the 19th Senate hardly moved the needle in national development. Except for the Philippine Maritime Zones Act, other laws and measures carried little significance.
The Senate’s overall poor performance is a reflection of the quality of senators. They are by no means the best and brightest – that is obvious. Like Congress, they too vote according to political bias. Political survival is the main preoccupation of the majority.
Several are saddled by conflicts between national interest and their family’s businesses. Many use their position to award government contracts to their proxies.
The Senate is a disgrace under Senator Chiz Escudero’s leadership. Escudero’s “forthwith” gambit reeked of legislative obstruction, twisting plain language into a pretzel of legalese to shield the Vice President from accountability. This maneuver was obviously a calculated stall. He mocked the Constitution and the Filipino people and thought he could get away with it. Escudero didn’t just delay proceedings – he turned the Senate into a sanctuary for the accused rather than a tribunal of truth.
How can civil society trust a Senate like this?
The Executive
It’s difficult to see the sincerity in the President’s anti-corruption campaign – whether on flood control or corruption at large. The hypocrisy is glaring. He himself approved the 2025 budget stuffed with pork – so he enabled it. And despite corruption being among the country’s gravest problems, he has never embarked on an earnest anti-corruption campaign even after three years in office.
He faces a crisis of moral high ground. How can he point fingers when he has never acknowledged his family’s billions in ill-gotten wealth, nor offered even the smallest act of restitution? The Marcoses’ escape from accountability left a generational precedent. It taught Filipinos that plunder carries no punishment – in fact, it pays handsomely. This chapter remains unresolved and awaiting its just conclusion.
Which brings us back to Marcos’ rhetoric over flood scams. We will only believe he is sincere if the guilty – including his closest allies – are arrested. Otherwise, it is just posturing, as usual.
The Courts
The Sandiganbayan and the Office of the Ombudsman hardly serve their purpose. True, the ombudsman decided 1,692 cases in 2023 with a 73 percent conviction rate and the Sandiganbayan filed 263 cases. But these only snared low- and mid-level officials. Even the convictions of Janet Napoles and Sajid Ampatuan are outliers. Not one big plunderer in the Senate, Congress or Cabinet have been held to account. The so-called guardians of accountability have become guardians of impunity. Their existence is a waste of national resources.
The Supreme Court
The SC is supposedly our last bastion of hope. But recent events have shown their bias. Thirteen of 15 SC justices are Duterte appointees.
As we know, the SC junked the impeachment complaint against VP Sara, not by precedent, but by inventing seven new hurdles: prior notice, attached evidence, proof of endorsers’ intent, etc. These requirements were plucked from thin air and applied retroactively. The SC effectively changed the rules midstream.
Former Chief Justices Panganiban and Puno called the ruling “rushed” (pre-decided?) and intrusive into Congress’ domain. Justice Carpio condemned its overreach which denied the House prosecution due process. Constitution framer Azcuna warned that it made impeachment “almost impossible,” invalidating the very mechanism of accountability.
How can we trust a Supreme Court that is also playing the political game?
What happens next?
Widespread institutional distrust should worry us all. History shows us that when citizens lose faith in their institutions, societies unravel and rebellion follows. What happens next is civil and political unrest, the fall of democracy and the violent punishment of plunderers by an enraged public.
In some cases, institutional distrust ignites a military junta or ushers in populist strongmen who promise order but deliver tyranny. In others, it fractures the state entirely, plunging the nation into chaos and economic collapse. Once trust in institutions is broken, the foundation of nationhood weakens and rebuilding it becomes a generational struggle.
The signs of the times are clear. Public distrust in our institutions is nearing a tipping point. Can the trend be reversed? Yes, but only if government acts decisively – by swiftly prosecuting, punishing and sequestering the assets of plunders. This is necessary to demonstrate sincerity. A governance revolution rooted on ethics must follow.
The Philippines was meant to be a great nation but elected officials sold our destiny for power and profit. You can count on the Filipino to reclaim his destiny.
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Email: andrew_rs6@yahoo.com. Follow him on Twitter @aj_masigan