Some six months after revolutionary general Emilio Aguinaldo declared the country’s independence from Spain on June 12, 1898, he delivered his inaugural address as president of the first Philippine republic at the Malolos Congress in Bulacan.
It was here where he expressed his vision of a country unfettered by foreign rule and guided by principled leadership based on law. “Hereafter, the Philippines will have a fundamental law, which will unite our people with the other nations by the strongest of solidarities; that is the solidarity of justice, of law, and of right, eternal truths, which are the basis of human dignity.”
Today, 128 years after attaining Philippine independence, Aguinaldo’s exalted words ring hollow as governance over the country seems to reflect the words of his rival, Commonwealth President Manuel Luis Quezon. “I would rather have a government run like hell by Filipinos than a government run like heaven by the Americans,” Quezon famously said during his speech in December 1939, in response to critics who argued that self-rule would be inferior to foreign administration.
Political alliances
With the current fierce in-fighting in the Senate and lawmakers bending the law to assert control, such wish sounds oddly prophetic. In what circle of hell can a lawmaker claim that the Senate was under attack so that a colleague could slip away and evade arrest? What devilish intent could have driven some senators to question the country’s own humanitarian law, the legal opinion of law experts, and even a Supreme Court ruling to shield a fugitive charged as co-conspirator in crimes against humanity by the International Criminal Court (ICC)?
Failed governance manifests as well in Vice President Sara Duterte’s looming impeachment trial in the Senate. Duterte was earlier impeached by the House on charges of betrayal of public trust, culpable violation of the Constitution, graft, corruption and bribery, for unexplained wealth, alleged misuse of some P612.5 million in confidential funds, and her explicit death threats against President Marcos, first lady Liza Araneta Marcos, and former Speaker Martin Romualdez.
With just weeks before the impeachment trial, speculations are rife that more than accountability, strategic political alliances and jockeying in the 2028 presidential elections are behind the escalating Senate impasse. That the second highest official of the land is embroiled in such charges and has remained defiant also expose how pelf, power, and position have eroded the notion of public service as a public trust.
Anomalous deals
The flood control scandal is illustrative as well, with some senators, private contractors, and officials of the government’s infrastructure agencies all dipping their hand into public coffers, while leaving ordinary folk to suffer catastrophic consequences from substandard or ghost flood control projects.
The corruption spills over to anomalous deals and fraudulent permits and licenses that undermine public safety, as seen in the recent collapse of a nine-story building under construction in Pampanga, with at least 30 people dead. The structural damage in several malls, commercial structures, schoolhouses, and hospitals in Mindanao after an intensity 7.8 quake early this week reveals as well the lapses of local governments in enforcing the building code.
Such negligence has no place amid current warnings of a potential “super El Niño” that could persist into early 2027. Are our leaders doing enough to prepare our farmers, fisherfolk, and other stakeholders for the severe risks of drought, extreme heat, and destructive typhoons that could affect lives already reeling under dire economic conditions worsened by the war in the Middle East?
Some bright spots
To be sure, there are some bright spots that redeem our generally grim governance scenario. For one, the House has passed an antidynasty bill meant to loosen the toxic political hold of families and clans over entire cities and provinces. That the Freedom of Information bill has similarly passed stokes hope that facts and truth—especially on politicians’ hidden assets and their sources—would lead voters into informed choices come election time.
Cases filed against personalities involved in the flood control scandal have also renewed one’s faith in the judicial system, even as the Vice President’s case again puts the rule of law to a test. With the government’s surrender of former President Rodrigo Duterte to the ICC last year and the current manhunt for his co-perpetrator Sen. Bato dela Rosa, there could be redemption yet for certain government institutions deemed complicit under the previous administration.
The prospect of finally declaring independence from corruption, economic woes, and political opportunism remains aspirational, an ideal we’ve been working on these past 128 years. Arduous the process may be, come election time, it helps to keep in mind the second part of Quezon’s quote: “ … because however bad a Filipino government might be, we can always change it.”