September 12, 2025 l The Manila Times
Last week, the Financial Executives Institute of the Philippines (Finex) joined an alliance of 30 influential business and civic organizations in demanding an independent investigation into excessive corruption linked to the government’s public works projects.
In a joint statement, the alliance expressed outrage, disgust and disappointment over the shameful, unabated, continuing and excessive corruption by many officials in the legislative and executive departments, as well as in local government units involved in infrastructure scams.
“While we take note of the President admonishing the corrupt in government, we are concerned that the guilty among these officials will continue their merry way of robbing the people and filling their pockets,” the alliance lamented, ending its statement with: “TAMA NA! SOBRA NA! TUMIGIL NA KAYO!”
Such surprisingly strong words came from a usually conservative business community with signatories from the Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the Management Association of the Philippines, the Employers Confederation of the Philippines, the Federation of Philippine Industries and the Philippine Institute of Certified Public Accountants.
Their call to action prioritizes the following: help identify those guilty in the conspiracy to steal from the people; participate in and support citizen and voter education campaigns against corrupt practices; gather evidence of corruption involving government officials so that the appropriate cases can be filed against them; blacklist notorious business owners and contractors who conspire with corrupt politicians; and encourage the financial sector to expose money launderers and their unexplained wealth within legal and regulatory boundaries.
As the flood control scandal unravels, civil society groups are mobilizing Filipinos to get out of their online comfort zones and take to the streets just like their counterparts in Indonesia and Nepal, where massive demonstrations against corruption have erupted — and even toppled the corrupt Nepalese regime.
Finex again called for systemic reforms jointly with more than 100 organizations that signed another civil society statement this week. “We demand that this corrupt system be replaced with a system of transparency, accountability and people’s participation that makes it harder to be bad and easier to be good,” said the broader alliance that includes church groups, military and uniformed personnel associations, youth organizations, labor federations and major academic institutions.
One of their demands is for the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH), and the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) to convene a multisectoral review committee to study current projects and resubmit the 2026 budget based on science. They called on the two agencies to reallocate savings to rules-based social protection, education, health and active public transportation budgets that had been defunded over the past few years.
The groups urged President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. to veto projects that do not adhere to proper science to send a strong and credible message to Congress. They are also calling on the Senate and the House of Representatives to end the abusive practice of opaque congressional insertions, especially in the bicameral conference committee.
“We call on the President, DPWH, DBM and SEC (Securities and Exchange Commission) to improve the quality of people’s participation by providing the necessary documents for proper civic monitoring and potential citizens’ participatory audits with COA (Commission on Audit),” said their statement.
Among their recommendations are: the appointment of a truly independent Ombudsman who will fearlessly file cases and lift the secrecy on statements of assets, liabilities and net worth; the Commission on Elections to investigate politicians who received campaign contributions from government contractors; the Bureau of Internal Revenue to complete tax fraud audits of the top 15 contractors whom Marcos exposed; and the Anti-Money Laundering Council to intensify investigations into suspicious financial transactions linked to these contractors.
Filipinos are now waiting for the composition of the independent anti-corruption commission that Marcos will announce shortly. (At press time on Thursday, Marcos issued Executive Order 94 creating a three-member Independent Commission for Infrastructure to “prioritize the investigation of flood control and other infrastructure projects within the last 10 years.” The members’ names have yet to be announced.— Ed)
Whether this will result in instilling a culture of accountability in the Philippines remains to be seen. Or would a bigger scandal push the flood control fiasco out of the headlines, just like what happened to the PhilHealth and Pharmally shenanigans?
***The views expressed herein are his own and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of his office as well as FINEX. For comments, email nextgenmedia@gmail.com. Photo is from Pinterest.