Philippines breaking down due to political dynasties

Mere slight rains flood up our communities and highways. Employees and students can’t get to work and school. Homes and shops are muddied. Roads disintegrate. Rivers rise, bridges collapse. Traffic jams. Tap water turns murky. Electricity conks out, and with it cellular service too.

Feigning concern, officials suspend school and government work. They publicize themselves leading rescue and relief work. They distribute food, medicines, cash aid. All from taxes, not their pockets. Yet tarpaulins picture them as do-gooders.

Stricken folk become dependent on the local officials. They begin to owe them debts of gratitude, electing them and their kinsmen forever.

In truth, it’s political dynasties that are causing the breakdown of the Philippines. Eighty-two percent of lawmakers are dynasts. They enact annual budgets from which to plunder and self-promote. Favorite pork barrels are roadworks, flood controls, health care and cash ayuda.

Kinsmen control provincial capitols, and city and municipal halls. Seventy-one of 82 governors, or 87 percent are dynasts. So are 113 of 149, or 75 percent of city mayors. Also, 910 of 1,493, or 61 percent of municipal mayors. Vice governors, vice mayors, provincial board members and city and municipal councilors are also dynasts.

The President and Vice President are dynasts.

Non-dynasts aren’t necessarily angels. But there’s bigger temptation for dynasts to steal. Spouses, parents and offspring, siblings and cousins are able to control public funds. Cashiers, accountants and auditors are their appointees and recommendees. Easy to keep secret their thievery.

The Supreme Court outlawed pork barrels in 2013. Still, political dynasts awarded themselves “budget insertions.”

Fake, faulty, overpriced flood works have been exposed as the biggest scam ever. It began as ghost dredging of lakes and rivers in the mid-2000s to 2015. In 2016-2025 budget and public works officials expanded to river and seawall construction, resulting in P1.7-trillion kickbacks for dynasts and bureaucrats.

PNA File Photo

Sleaziest flood projects were in Bulacan’s first district. Investigators uncovered P5-billion ghost dike constructions in Calumpit, Hagonoy, Malolos and Baliuag towns from which four senators pocketed 40 percent commissions. Oriental Mindoro’s first district came in second. The ombudsman filed malversation and graft raps for P289.5-million substandard road dikes in Naujan town.

In Davao Occidental, a P179.5-million ghost flood work led to indictment of DPWH officials and contractor Sarah Discaya’s St. Timothy Construction Corp. Declared substandard in La Union was a P89.7-million canal dug by Silverwolves Construction of congressmen brothers Eric and Edvic Yap.

In Ilocos Norte, flood control allocations skyrocketed by over 1,700 percent from P463.67 million to P8.72 billion. Projects in Leyte grew five-fold from P2.17 billion to P10.06 billion. In the Cordillera mountains, the multibillion-peso racket was in flimsy roadside rock nettings, cat’s eyes and safety roller barriers.

Lacking critical thinking, Filipinos can’t understand that dynasts cause their misery.

In 2018, Filipino 15-year-olds were the lowest among 79 countries in Reading Comprehension. They couldn’t write a single sentence from a paragraph they read in their chosen language under the Program for International Student Assessment.

In PISA 2022, Filipinos were 77th of 81 countries. Not much difference from 2018. The plunder by political dynasts worsened during that period.

Filipino fourth-graders, aged 9-10, were lowest of 58 countries in the 2019 Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study. In ASEAN, Filipino fifth and eight graders fared worse than counterparts in Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand and Vietnam – ahead only of Cambodia.

PISA examinees in 2022 and 2018 are now aged 19 and 23. One can just imagine how they are lagging in free college, or if they’re gainfully employed at all. And what of their offspring, if any?

TIMSS takers in 2019 are now in Grade 11. They were promoted because the public school system is a conveyor belt that leaves no one behind. They must give way to the next batch of classroom seat occupants.

Child malnutrition pervades. One in four kids aged five and below is stunted or bansot. One in seven is underweight, payatot. One in 18 is wasting, putot.

The situation is haven for political dynasts. The duller the voters, the longer the dynasties stay.

Bongbong Marcos made no mention of dynasties in his State of the Nation Address the other Monday. Perhaps he knows that his congressman-son Sandro Marcos’ biggest project since 2025 is a fake anti-dynasty bill.

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