Politics trumps reform

By Artchil B. Fernandez

The administration of Bongbong Marcos (BBM) finds itself in a difficult situation as it sails into the sunset. It faces a tricky dilemma. Torn between two opposing forces — politics and reform — the current administration must make a delicate and risky decision. At stake are its legacy and place in the annals of history.

Rehabilitating the dark and dirty reputation of the Marcos family is the president’s chief aim. BBM is trying hard to present his administration as a crusader for reform and good governance. If his administration leaves a legacy of reform, he hopes it may obscure and conceal his family’s nefarious past.

An opportunity presented itself to BBM when the ghost flood control project scam was unearthed. It was BBM himself who exposed and denounced the massive theft of public funds during his 2025 State of the Nation Address (SONA). He vowed that his administration would get to the bottom of the scandal and punish those involved in what is now considered the largest corruption racket in the nation’s history.

Filipinos were outraged when the ghost flood control project scam was exposed. Unlike past corruption scams, in which only a portion of public funds was stolen, this corruption scheme siphoned off 100% of taxpayers’ money. The entire budget for flood control projects worth hundreds of billions of pesos was filched by corrupt politicians in connivance with greedy bureaucrats and functionaries.

Before, projects were still implemented, albeit substandard or haphazardly done. Now, no projects are implemented. Hundreds of billions in public funds simply disappear.

Addressing the ghost flood control project scandal by punishing the politicians and bureaucrats involved would greatly boost BBM’s attempt to package himself as a reforming president. Appeasing public anger by bringing the full force of the law against those who schemed to defraud the public of hundreds of billions of pesos would strengthen the reformist credentials of BBM and his administration.

At the outset of the scandal, BBM was well-positioned to realize his goal. He revamped key agencies and ordered a serious investigation that achieved initial success. BBM’s cousin, former Speaker Martin Romualdez, was sacrificed to appease public wrath. Several members of Congress at the center of the scandal were either charged or forced into hiding. It appeared that the administration was serious about rooting out corruption and punishing those who brazenly robbed the national treasury.

Amid the public frenzy over the ghost flood control project scandal came a supervening event: the intensification of the conflict between House Duterte and House Marcos. The foiled impeachment of Vice President Sara Duterte last year signaled that the conflict between Team Kadiliman and Team Kasamaan had entered a new phase. The failure of the first impeachment exposed the weakness of House Marcos.

The second impeachment of Sara Duterte was successful but fraught with danger and peril. A counteroffensive by the Duterte camp, which grabbed the Senate leadership, put the second impeachment in jeopardy. The short-lived but tumultuous Senate presidency of Alan Peter Cayetano indicated that the Dutertes remained a formidable force.

House Duterte nearly derailed the impeachment trial of the vice president as its allies controlled the Senate. For a while, it looked as if the second impeachment would end up like the first. House Marcos was once again on the defensive.

Eventually, the administration regained control of the Senate, but the cost was high. Whittling down the Duterte majority in the Senate required a combination of extensive backdoor negotiations, legal calisthenics, threats and intimidation, and thorny quid pro quos. The administration had to exhaust its resources to turn things around.

To wrest the Senate leadership from the Duterte camp and push the impeachment trial of Sara Duterte, the administration had to make a steep sacrifice. The first casualty in the administration’s drive to remove Sara Duterte from the vice presidency was reform. BBM had to abandon his administration’s reform drive to regain the political initiative by seizing back the Senate, thus ensuring that the impeachment trial of his principal adversary became a reality.

Many senators in both the Duterte and administration blocs are involved in the ghost flood control project scam. Aside from the ghost flood control project scandal, some senators in both camps are also entangled in financial, political, or personal messes. The administration has been able to hold its precarious majority and poach members from the Duterte camp by leveraging these senators’ involvement in scandals and scams.

Faced with the choice between reform and politics, the BBM administration chose the latter. BBM had to expend and deplete his political capital to ensure that his priority project would not only remove Sara Duterte from the vice presidency but also deny her the chance to run for president in 2028. He had to make tremendous compromises to considerably weaken the Dutertes’ chances of returning to power in 2028.

Reform has taken a back seat, with the political project taking center stage. Concessions have had to be made to scandal-ridden senators to ensure that they kowtow to the administration’s political agenda, thus halting the drive for reform.

In the end, BBM has had to bite the bullet and abandon his aspiration to be a reformist president to secure his and his family’s political and personal survival after he steps down from the presidency. Between taking down the Dutertes and reforming the rotten political system, BBM opted for politics. Personal interest takes precedence over social obligation. Public service is sacrificed on the altar of self-service. Politics trumps reform.

The last days of the BBM presidency will be spent ensuring that his pet political project succeeds. This will require him to forget his reform agenda.