Kleptocracy

Let’s call a spade a spade: what we have is a kleptocracy, not a democracy.

Political power is held by thieves. It was acquired by buying elections, using funds stolen from taxpayers. The monopoly on power is maintained through the levers of patronage politics, greased with even more taxpayer money.

The stealing permeated every aspect of our government. Funds for education or health were diverted by our legislators to projects where stealing is easier. Key parts of the bureaucracy have been coopted into conveyors for ghost projects.

Local governments did not let the action pass them: they mulct businesses daring to invest in their fiefdoms. They clog the dispersal of investments to communities that need them direly.

There are generational costs inflicted by the kleptocracy. Our health system is seriously incapacitated. Our educational system has failed our young. Our logistics system is decrepit and unable to support our economic growth.

It is hard to be proud of our country these days. Even harder to be hopeful about the future – whatever the hype is about “Bagong Pilipinas.”

Whatever we try to do to push development forward – be it building our tourism industry or preparing a highly skilled workforce capable of competing globally – has been thwarted by corrupt government. Our ability to move forward is stymied by unbridled looting everywhere.

The growing scandal over the corrupted flood control projects will just continue ballooning over the next few days. Any credible inquiry conducted into this most flagrant theft of public funds will be staring at a bottomless pit. The thievery related to these projects is a many-splendored thing.

Compared to the emerging gallery of rogues associated with the flood control projects, Janet Napoles was a rank amateur. She did not organize party-list groups to tighten her grip over the allocation of the national budget. She did not acquire media outlets to help contain whatever scandal breaks out. She did not hire armies of apologists to hide her tracks. For all these failures, she languishes in jail.

Today’s thieves are more sophisticated and more brazen. They operate with impunity: mangling the national budget in plain sight. They advertise the fruits of their crime: developing a taste for expensive designer bags, luxury watches and supercars. Conspicuous consumption is the fashion of the day.

The 19th Congress will be remembered for the sheer audacity of our honorable legislators in flaunting their questionable wealth. It was a showcase of expensive European luxury products. A multi-level parking facility was built to house the supercars of those who were supposed to chart the nation’s future. In plain sight was evidence of criminality afoot.

Only the contractors who made mind-boggling billions from public works outshone the legislators. They supposedly paid to advertise their glittering assets through television features.

The 2025 national budget was condemned as the most corrupt budget in our history. But it only slightly exceeded the corruption of the 2024 national budget. Funds intended for health care were commandeered for the pet projects of congressmen. Foreign-assisted strategic projects, assiduously negotiated for years, were defunded shamelessly. An accurate record of the deliberations over the strangest congressional insertions could not be found.

President Marcos cut a pathetic figure visiting a substandard dike and a ghost flood project. He seemed surprised that this happened. He would surely be shocked by the fact that there are thousands more projects similarly looted.

Of course, the President was angry. He imagined the flood control projects would be his administration’s legacy. Instead, they have become redundant little monuments to fraud. At least his father has the mothballed Bataan nuclear plant as a monument to corruption. This $2-billion failed project is at least majestic.

Marcos Jr. threatened those responsible for these scams with charges of economic sabotage. That is a particular crime his father codified. Most of us have difficulty recalling if anyone was jailed for this crime. The “crime” has definitional problems.

Apart from threatening to prosecute individuals for a vague crime, Marcos has so far offered no solution to the epidemic of corruption that escalated during his term. He should at least find the blueprint of a comprehensive plan to fight flooding drawn up during the Aquino II administration. He might sack the DPWH secretary although that will hit more like performative gimmickry.

Some taxpayers would rather that he round up the most notorious contractors, some who have become solons in the meantime, and have them shot at the Luneta Park. But that is not legally possible.

The President ought to do something more than express exasperation. Public anger is building up perilously. Our taxpayers will appreciate a little more decisiveness at the top.

Two senators have at least ventured distinct but “experimental” solutions. One thought it might be a good idea to suspend all flood control funding in the next budget. Another toys with the idea of banning congressional insertions in the budget process.

Both proposals have their respective flaws. They are good for momentary headline grabbing – although they fall far short of addressing the crisis of kleptocracy. How are kleptocrats to be unelected?

In the meantime, classes in the NCR and Central Luzon were suspended yesterday because of slight monsoon rains. The education of our young suffers as collateral damage because of the flood control rackets.

The rising rage of a people consigned to wading in dirty water needs to find a vent.