Enemy within

The Philippines may be dying, drowned by corruption so massive and unforgivable that it corrodes every pillar of national life. Until the plunderers are punished, the nation will continue to drift in misery, waiting for a spark that might ignite the breaking of the Republic.

Since the dawn of our self-rule, corruption has festered like an old wound, reopening with every crisis into a malignant ulcer. 

The twin forces of corruption and disaster, both natural and man-made, have inflicted pain too deep for Filipinos to heal or move forward.

Yet amid the decay, a flicker of hope remains. It shines in a new breed of idealistic and courageous leaders, among them DPWH Secretary Vince Dizon, Ombudsman Boying Remulla, Senators Ping Lacson and Tito Sotto, with their fellow legislators and the ICI triumvirate of Justice Andy Reyes, Babes Singson, and Rossana Fajardo. 

Together with them stand countless quiet but steadfast public servants and citizen volunteers who demand accountability as they expose, investigate, and prosecute those who betray the nation’s trust. 

As the only Christian nation in Asia, perhaps the Philippines remains under God’s protective embrace. What we endure today may well be a test of faith, a passage through trial and transition, with transformation and redemption waiting just beyond the bend.

But corruption is more than a moral issue, it is an economic, social, and humanitarian plague. When public funds for health care, education, and infrastructure are stolen through kickbacks, collusion, and ghost projects, the price is paid not in pesos but in lives. The hospitals never built, the bridges that collapsed, the classrooms that never opened, these are not statistics but silent victims of greed.

Our nation faces crisis after crisis, pandemics, food shortages, energy insecurity, and climate disasters yet the staggering scale of corruption today challenges the very core of our institutions, exposing how fragile our “demo-crazy” has become. Billions have been lost to padded contracts and phantom projects, angering citizens while conniving officials remain, as usual, in routine denial of wrongdoing.

Time and again, during every crisis, citizens were called to sacrifice, yet some public servants treated the nation’s treasury as if it were their personal purse. The greater loss, however, is the crisis of credibility and the death of hope. When businesses doubt fairness and investors question the sanctity of contracts, the economy falters. Confidence, the invisible capital of nations, drains away.

Business leaders speak of competitiveness and predictability, yet incentives mean little when corruption distorts competition and contracts go to the highest briber instead of the best bidder. Investors hesitate when bureaucracy turns into a toll gate, and every transaction hides in the shadows sweetened by “success fees” paid in hard currency.

To overcome this crisis, we need not only economic stimulus but moral renewal. The strongest anti-corruption message is not a slogan; it is decency.

Even in government, honest officials are demoralized when corruption thrives, merit is replaced by loyalty, mediocrity becomes normal, integrity is punished, and silence becomes survival. We have enough safeguards, the Constitution, the Anti-Graft Law, the Code of Conduct for Public Officials but enforcement is spotty. Laws are strong on paper but meaningless when politics shields the guilty and threatens the honest.

Reform is a collective undertaking between government and citizens who refuse to look away, journalists who persist, and civic and business groups that demand transparency, accountability and swift justice.

Technology can help through digital governance, online bidding, open data, and real-time audits to reduce discretion and increase transparency. But without moral will, technology is next to useless.  Machines can automate processes, but only people can uphold principles.

Today’s organized crime in flood control projects steals our future, deepens inequality, and destroys hope. We cannot rebuild a nation on broken trust. Until we confront our own complacency and demand integrity from ourselves as much as from others, the cycle of corruption will continue. As the creator of Pogo once wrote, “We have met the enemy, and he is us.”

The time to end corruption is not SOMEDAY, it is NOW!