Drowning in Corruption: Why the Philippines Needs to Drain the Dynasties

 

As floodwaters rise across the Philippines, so does public fury. Not just at nature’s wrath—but at the engineered disaster of corruption. Billions of pesos have been siphoned off through “ghost” flood control projects, substandard infrastructure, and contractor monopolies. 

The Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) admitted that 20% of the ₱545 billion flood budget went to just 15 contractors, many linked to entrenched political clans.

This isn’t mismanagement. It’s state-enabled looting.

The public fury is only outgunned by Jakarta riots at Indonesian MPs featherbedding their salaries and perks. Shades of UK PPE or Migrant Hotels or Duck houses and Flipping or Baroness Mone and Dido or the King Charles Waitrose bag of castle funds and gongs.

Senator Panfilo Lacson exposed how kickbacks now reach 58% of project costs, with road reflectors priced at ₱11,720 instead of ₱1,800. Solar streetlights were procured at ₱157,000 each—five times market value. The result? Roads that collapse, bridges that wash away, and communities left to drown while dynasties profit.

Costs that push Pentagon $1,000 taps into the shade. And even greater kickbacks for Nuclear plants and Waste clean up?

The scandal isn’t isolated. It’s systemic. And it’s dynastic.

Political Nepotism: The Root of Rot

The 1987 Constitution mandates a ban on political dynasties. Yet no enabling law has ever passed. Why? Because Congress is the dynasty. Over 113 of 149 cities are controlled by political clans. Some families hold five simultaneous posts—a phenomenon dubbed “obese dynasties” by the Ateneo School of Government.

These dynasties don’t just dominate politics. They control agriculture, mining, real estate, and public contracts. They write the laws, award the tenders, and investigate themselves. As JV Bautista of Artikulo Onse put it: “You cannot expect people accused of corruption to investigate themselves. They will just declare everybody innocent”.

A nepo culture that puts the Bush-Clinton-Kennedy dynasties in the shade too.

Or UK with a surfeit of Kinnocks, Milibands, Eagles, Benns, Johnsons and Grays.

Reform Is Not Enough. We Need Rupture.

President Marcos Jr. has promised a “full sweep” of DPWH and accepted the resignation of Secretary Bonoan. But without dismantling the dynastic machinery, this is cosmetic. The Federation of Free Workers rightly called dynasties “the root of corruption” and demanded an Anti-Political Dynasty Law as a priority.

We need:

  • Independent citizen-led investigations, not Senate whitewashes

  • Full disclosure of contractor affiliations, including familial ties

  • Media investigative reporting and FOI

  • Constitutional enforcement of anti-dynasty provisions

  • Abolition of hereditary political power, not just lifestyle checks

And is UK and EU and USA aid and trade being frittered away in the Chanel boutiques of Manila by nepo kids? Or Save the Turtle funds spent on Instagram dinners of boiled eggs and soldiers?

Will the new Pentagon bases be ghost sites of mouldy barracks and broken runways and empty PX?

From Flood to Fire: Mobilising the Public

The anger on the streets is real. Protesters are demanding wage justice, tax reform, and an end to elite impunity. Labour leader Leody de Guzman warned: “Don’t rely on corrupt departments. Form an independent body. We’re available”.

This is more than a scandal. It’s a reckoning.

The Philippines isn’t drowning in rain—it’s drowning in greed. Until dynasties are dismantled, every flood will be a reminder: the system is rigged, the contracts are captured, and the people are disposable.

Let’s drain the dynasties. Let’s rupture the rot.


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