It ain't over 'til the fat lady sings

For years now, we have written — perhaps too often — about the extraordinary plunder of public money involving politicians, public works engineers and officials, and their collaborating private contractors.

- DIWA C. GUINIGUNDO

What distinguishes the current moment is not the novelty of corruption but its scale, persistence and institutional embeddedness. The evidence has become both abundant and disturbingly familiar: ghost projects, substandard construction, unfinished infrastructure and flood-control works located in vastly different geographic and hydrological contexts yet priced almost identically as if designed, costed and implemented by the same template, if not by the same favored contractors sourcing materials from a single supplier.

These are not isolated lapses. Over time, corruption and weak governance in the Philippines have evolved into systemic, durable features of the political economy. If the recent flood control scandals have accomplished anything, it is to strip away any remaining illusion that corruption is confined to the margins. Based on hearings conducted by the House of Representatives, the Senate and the Independent Commission for Infrastructure, corruption appears to have penetrated multiple layers of governance — political, bureaucratic and contractual. The problem is no longer about a few bad actors; it is about institutional failure.

Against this backdrop, one might reasonably expect that the government would respond by reforming the budget process itself, the primary instrument through which public priorities are translated into concrete programs and projects. One would expect a recalibration toward discipline, transparency and performance.

Yet the ongoing deliberations on the 2026 national budget suggest that such expectations remain, at best, premature.