In 2025, the country received its lowest score yet in the Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) with a 32 out of 100 after a series of flood control scandals, delayed impeachment trials, and high-profile plunder cases.
While the Anti-Political Dynasty Bill once promised a future of erasing the same old surnames on ballots, its loopholes have steered the proposed legislation to a different direction. Co-authored by the President’s son himself, Sandro Marcos, this bill merely stretches the restriction to parents, spouses, and siblings. Relatives at the third and fourth degree, including uncles and cousins, can still run as they please. If the nation were to truly crack down on political dynasties, a bill as poorly written as this should never have passed its first reading.
Rather than creating new laws that merely budge national efforts to ending corruption, the existing Anti-Epal Policy needs stricter enforcement from the Department of Internal and Local Government (DILG). This policy prohibiting politicians from taking credit in tax-funded projects wrongly sat idle in legislators’ desks for years until it was only recently issued by DILG Secretary Jonvic Remulla this year. Branding public services and infrastructures with politicians’ faces and surnames completely disregards where the money truly came from: Filipino taxpayers.
In an already flawed system, Filipino taxpayers are also not made equal. Based on data from the Bureau of Internal Revenue, Asian Consulting Group chief tax adviser Mon Abrea told ANC that 82% of personal tax collections still come from the working class. When money buys exemptions, Filipino middle-income earners suffer an inescapable fate of having thousands deducted in their paycheck automatically while businessmen pay the same amount with millions of pesos to spare.
The future for the Philippines, however, is not so bleak. According to the Philippines Statistics Authority (PSA), the unemployment rate fell from 5.8% in January to 4.7% last April. As the national budget raised attention towards building more school facilities and public works, more doors have opened for job-seeking Filipinos. Pressing issues are undoubtedly being resolved one by one, such as the complete shutdown of Philippine Offshore Gaming Operators (POGO).
Nonetheless, slow steps should not be worth the same praise speedy progress gets. Laws continue to collect dust after leadership in the Senate goes back and forth, stealing time that should have been spent on discussing more serious matters. This also delayed crucial investigations on the flood control scandal which uncovered several corrupt leaders who shamelessly pocketed the hard-earned money from taxpayers.
To claw its way out of a tainted reputation, a corruption-stricken Philippines can climb up the ranks in the CPI with stronger commitment to transparency and stricter enforcement of laws. Aside from fairer budget allocations, tracking where and how the people’s money are spent has to become second nature. Laws, policies, and bills are not pieces of paper that only hold meaning when newspapers debate them; they have to serve their purpose and reshape a system that lets anyone with a wad of cash walk free from their crimes.
There is no one solution to stopping a problem so deeply rooted in the Philippine government, but there are also zero excuses to keep letting it happen.
