People’s anger and ways forward

There is no cure-all or easy fix to the age-old problem of corruption in this country. But left unchecked, bad governance and elite privilege fester into anger that can erupt on the streets, as we are now seeing in Indonesia. Some say the current civil unrest there is a sign of things to come in the region, especially in countries like the Philippines, where systemic corruption remains deeply entrenched.

The unrest in Indonesia began in late August 2025 as people protested against lavish housing and allowance perks granted to members of parliament, along with police violence. The protests have since spread nationwide, across multiple cities, with parliament and government buildings set on fire, widespread looting, thousands of arrests, and at least six confirmed deaths.

I sense the same simmering discontent among our people. In those I encounter and observe every day, you can feel the anger that ordinary people struggle to contain at the constant flaunting of wealth and luxury by the plunderous few on social media, set against the struggling existence of the poor, the working class, and even the middle class.

I myself cannot help but feel anger and resentment at our rotten system. Yet the only things stopping me from going overboard are two: first, my oath as a lawyer binds me to the constitutional order; and second, I know that if unrest or a revolution were to happen, the victors would almost always become like the ones they sought to remove.

It is painful to admit, but it is not in our political culture to be able to sustain integrity in power. In our country, power tilts easily toward personal and family gain; unlike in the West, where the Enlightenment in the 18th century Europe forged institutions strong enough to outlast individual interests.

Here, institutions were imported rather than organically forged through intellectual movements. Spanish colonialism entrenched systems of patronage and hierarchy, while American colonization transplanted a constitutional system that meant little once the colonial governors departed and governance was handed to the new Filipino elite.

Manuel Quezon once declared that he would rather have a country run like hell by Filipinos than one run like heaven by Americans. He was right: once power passed into the hands of fellow Filipinos, the country slid into hell. Elitism and patronage are long embedded in our political culture that even if we were to have civil unrest today, it would only produce a new elite --drawn from protest leaders and the reform-minded-- who would then lord it over and, over time, morph into an elite no different, or perhaps even worse, than the ones they replaced.

So what are the ways forward? Is there still hope? I have always believed in the power of a community that is open to dialogue and genuine public discourse. And while I said at the start of this piece that there is no cure-all or easy fix to our problems, we can still propose institutional reforms, debate them, and push for the best possible solutions.

I can cite two past reforms that helped our people. The first was the telecommunications reform during the Fidel V. Ramos administration, which finally ended the decades-long waiting list for a phone line under a monopoly. The second is the Local Government Code, which granted LGUs more autonomy and resources, giving rise to models of good governance in many localities, such as Naga City in Bicol under the late Jesse Robredo.

As regards the current hottest issue on corruption, I believe that corrupt acts almost always thrive in the dark, so the most effective way to flush out crooked officials and their schemes is to shine a bright light on government transactions. This is where Senator Bam Aquino’s “Blockchain the Budget Bill” (Senate Bill No. 1330) comes in --as a concrete way forward.

Backed by technology experts, the bill seeks to make every peso in the national budget traceable, transparent, and auditable in real time. Under the measure, all allocations would be recorded as digital public assets on a blockchain platform, with a public portal allowing citizens, auditors, and oversight bodies to verify how funds move from agencies to projects to beneficiaries.

Blockchain technology is new to many, but it is worth looking into. It is not a magic bullet, of course, but it promises to make harder, if not impossible, for anomalies, diversions, or pork to hide in the shadows.