The flood control mess revealed a vast web of corruption drawing in legislators, executive agencies, and politically connected contractors. It joins a long sequence of controversies across various departments, each eroding public confidence in democratic institutions. Yet amid this uproar, the country risks missing what truly matters: the opportunity to fix the political system that repeatedly produces leaders tolerant of corruption.
Congress and the Commission on Elections (Comelec) must therefore anchor national attention on comprehensive, structural electoral reforms. Without this, scandals will recur and governance At the core of the crisis is an electoral environment where money, patronage, and political machinery overwhelm public judgment will remain trapped in dysfunction.
At the core of the crisis is an electoral environment where money, patronage, and political machinery overwhelm public judgment. Leaders ascend to office not because they embody competence or integrity, but because they can mobilize resources, monopolize name recall, and exploit weak regulations.
The consequence is predictable — politicians shield allies, manipulate agencies, and tolerate illicit revenue streams. The flood control scandal is not an aberration — it is the logical outcome of a system that rewards power accumulation over public service.
Reform must therefore begin where political legitimacy is formed — in the electoral process. First, clean, transparent, and fully auditable elections must be guaranteed. This means strengthening technological safeguards, considering a hybrid system where votes cast are counted manually and transmitted electronically, requiring robust end-to-end audits, empowering citizen-watchdog participation, and ensuring that the votes cast are counted exactly as cast. Without credibility in the vote, everything else collapses.
Second, Congress must mandate stronger and more sustained voter education. Citizens need time and tools to analyze candidates, fact-check claims, examine records, and debate choices within their communities. This requires expanding the electoral calendar by moving the filing of candidacies to a year before election day, giving the public enough time to evaluate aspirants meaningfully. Under the current system, informal campaigning begins years in advance, but official scrutiny begins far too late. Early filing professionalizes the political process, filters out nuisance candidates, and enhances public deliberation.
Third, Comelec must be equipped with firm regulatory powers. The agency should be authorized to immediately disqualify candidates who refuse to participate in mandatory debates, fail to submit a SALN and a personal commitment form, or decline to sign an integrity pledge detailing platform, track record, and governance commitment. Such documents must be disseminated to the electorate no more than a month after filing. The voters should be provided ample time to discern and fact-check such documents prior to casting their final choices of the leaders who will run the government. Public office is a privilege, not an entitlement; those who seek it must be willing to face the electorate, articulate their plans, and accept the ethical obligations.
Fourth, and critically, Congress must finally confront the political architecture that enables corruption to multiply: political dynasties. For decades, families have entrenched themselves across local and national offices, consolidating control over budgets, appointments, and procurement systems. This concentration of power reduces accountability, suppresses competition, and distorts governance priorities.
A strong anti-dynasty provision — banning candidacies up to the third degree of consanguinity and affinity — is the minimum necessary to disrupt these entrenched networks. Such a rule aligns with the spirit of the Constitution and global democratic norms. It reopens the political space to qualified, independent candidates who are often shut out by family-based political monopolies.
Fifth, campaign finance must be modernized with stringent caps, real-time disclosure, and aggressive auditing. Much of the corruption in government is driven by the need to “recover” campaign spending. Reforming campaign finance is therefore inseparable from stopping grand corruption.
These measures are not mere procedural adjustments — they are existential reforms. Congress must resist diversionary politics. Comelec must reclaim its authority as the guardian of democratic integrity. Both institutions must work jointly to create a political system where leaders are chosen on merit and integrity, not machinery or lineage.
If the nation wants to break free of the cycle of scandals that now seem routine, the solution must begin at the root. Electoral reform is the country’s strongest anti-corruption weapon — and it must be deployed now.