Buying time via budget

Public outrage is expected to erupt and sear the political landscape this year as a result of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s failure to bring those responsible to justice, as the administration buys time by using the recently signed 2026 national budget.

The Marcos administration has increasingly revealed weak leadership.

“Last year’s worsening economic decline is the ground giving way beneath it,” according to the economic think tank Ibon Foundation.

The President’s anti-corruption posture, adopted in mid-2025 by revealing the wholesale public theft, “served as a defense mechanism to overcome lame-duck dynamics and to manage elite ambitions and public discontent,” the Ibon report stated.

It added that by the end of the year, the administration struggled to control its allies, defend against the Dutertes, and assert its authority. At the same time, slow growth, rising prices and a fragile job market made daily life harder for ordinary Filipinos.

A combination of political shocks and economic backsliding eroded public support for Marcos, turning cracks into an ever-widening rift between the government and the people.

The Marcos administration is attempting to shore up its position through unrepentant pork-barrel politics and it markedly expanded social dole-outs. Ibon said these measures may buy time but are unlikely to be sufficient to stabilize governance or fully consolidate political authority.

Political pressure is mounting amid its intensifying.

The elite intramurals in the run-up to the 2028 national elections are mounting.

“The Dutertes are poised to exploit the vacillating or indecisive leadership to continue carving out their own influence at Marcos Jr.’s expense,” the report added.

Regarding the liberal faction, which had styled itself as a third force, it is still in the early stages of regaining influence despite incremental gains.

The backlash would be directed at the economy, as the country is likely to continue losing momentum.

The economy will remain constrained by rising poverty and joblessness, fiscal constraints and investment hesitation, and a decelerating global economy.

Headline inflation has eased, but prices remain structurally high relative to family incomes.

Wages and earnings remain depressed and employment growth is concentrated in low-quality, insecure and informal jobs — the primary channels through which most Filipino households are feeling economic distress.

These will continue to fuel public frustration already heightened by limp action against the grand-scale corruption.

Economic conditions that continue to deteriorate will be a powerful driver of organized protests, especially among the poorest and most vulnerable Filipinos, and also the middle-class who are seeing their accustomed personal security eroding.

Ibon warned that more profound and more consequential reforms needed for genuine national development “may continue to be obscured by an overemphasis on corruption.”

The danger of an overkill is that oligarchs and primary business interests may decry corruption even as many continue to exploit systems of influence, favoritism and impunity to confer a competitive advantage on their enterprises.

The report noted that public dissatisfaction with the administration is already pronounced.

This creates openings for greater accountability, policy reform and even a modest but meaningful reset of governance.

As awareness deepens of how systemic corruption and a self-serving elite infighting drive economic distress, the erosion of public confidence in the 2028 elections as a vehicle for meaningful change may widen beyond the margins, the report warned.

Filipino-American billionaire Loida Nicolas Lewis, during her visit to the DAILY TRIBUNE, offered salient advice amid the political turbulence: learn to keep quiet and reflect.

“In being calm, God can talk to you, or you can talk to God,” she said.

Connecting with the Divine will definitely do a lot of crooks in the government a lot of good.