Three-year mass theft

A corruption-driven growth was how the head of an economic think tank described the economy’s expansion over the last decade and a half.

Ibon Foundation’s executive director, Sonny Africa, said the strong growth that the country has notched for several years has been illusory “in a lot of ways.”

He indicated that the expansion of the gross domestic product (GDP) was significant for creating enough jobs. But it hasn’t really improved the condition of most Filipinos.

Even if we fix the corruption, if we don’t address the underlying economic problems, we’ll still be facing joblessness, low family incomes and poverty.

It’s like the Marcos administration is racing against time to keep Filipinos happy, based on the outcome of the investigations into the flood control mess and on how the people feel about the economy.

The corruption mess has sacrificed health, education and quality jobs, all of which are essential for Filipinos to have a life worth living.

Africa said the problems in the economy right now aren’t about appeasing foreign investors or reacting to external pressures, but taking deliberate measures to expand social protection and social services.

Worse, the government is increasingly relying on debt to feed its officials’ addiction to the pork barrel.

Obligations increased to P17.6 trillion in October 2025, already exceeding the government forecast of P17.36 trillion by year’s end.

Debt has ballooned from P12.79 trillion in June 2022 at the start of the Marcos Jr. administration to the current P17.6 trillion, or by P4.8 trillion, which was a 37.3-percent increase in a mere three years.

The gross borrowings of the Marcos government are at a record P208.3 billion per month, faster than the previous Duterte administration’s P130.6 billion and former president Noynoy Aquino’s P61.5 billion. Even when combined, the Marcos administration’s borrowings outstrip those of both former presidents’.

The massive increase in debt corresponds to the spike in pork barrel components in the yearly national budget under President Marcos.

For instance, unprogrammed appropriations (UA), which are projects and programs without earmarked funds, were suspected of being bloated with legislators’ pet projects. The UA spiked from P251 billion in 2022 to P807 billion in 2023, P731.5 billion in 2024 and P531.7 billion in 2025.

Increases in flood control projects were also the highest in the Marcos Jr. government, with P68.3 billion in 2023 and P69.6 billion in 2024.

The flood control project budgets of P283.2 billion in 2023, P352.8 billion in 2024, and P350.5 billion in 2025 were the most significant allocations in the national budget’s history.

Hundreds of billions of pesos in government funds, including borrowed funds, have not gone towards improving the people’s welfare or ensuring genuine development.

These funds instead went into the pockets of the powerful and wealthy few through pork barrel insertions throughout the budget process.

It is estimated that as much as P695.8 billion of the proposed 2026 budget is presidential and legislative pork, allocations that should be going to much-needed ayuda, schools, health facilities and agriculture, among others.

Runaway corruption will keep the debt growing needlessly and inflict more punishment on the hapless population.

The numbers are telling.

Of the P900 billion allocated to flood control and P545 billion implemented from 2022 to 2025, plus another P270 billion for 2026, the government could have built 1,215,000 housing units and still have enough money to relocate all those living in low-lying areas, according to a government official.

This means 1.2 million families, or about six million persons, were denied the comforts of a home. Had the money been used productively, they all would have had a home.