Someone once said that no country can progress if its politics is more profitable than its industries…In a country where those in government are richer than entrepreneurs, they manufacture poverty.
The meme I saw didn’t say who said these words. But whoever he or she is, no truer observation has been made about our situation.
Indeed, even the late president Ferdinand Marcos was supposed to have told BBM who wanted to be a scientist that ‘mahirap ‘yung science, hindi ka yayaman diyan.’
BBM said his father did not live to see the multi-billionaires of Silicon Valley who built multi-billion-dollar business empires on the back of science and technology.
Unfortunately, most of our people think like BBM’s father. entering politics or working in government is the path to riches. And this belief is reinforced daily with social media posts of ‘nepo’ babies flaunting the fruits of their parents’ ill-gotten wealth.
Even at the lower socio-economic levels, kids aspire to become policemen because they can see that our law enforcers are never hungry, live good lives and exercise power over them. No wonder a bachelor’s degree course in criminology is the most popular course thereabouts.
Being elected to Congress is almost a foolproof guarantee that your net worth will escalate beyond your wildest dreams, if your conscience is dead. Now that the SALNs are once again available for public inspection, someone should make a study to see how the economic status of our elected officials blossomed.
Recent surveys reveal how Filipinos have become jaded about corruption. In other words, we have become exhausted, dulled or cynical because corruption now defines us.
A Pulse Asia 2025 Ulat ng Bayan survey found 97 percent of respondents saying corruption in government is widespread. Some 90 percent agreed there is collusion among our officials, legislators and contractors to steal from the taxpayers.
Pulse Asia also found out people think corruption is ‘essentially universal’ not only at the national level (95 percent) but also in each geographic and socio-economic subgrouping (95-100 percent).
OCTA Research found out that most Filipinos are angry and outraged over corruption in DPWH infrastructure projects.
OCTA’s Sept. 25 to 30 survey showed that 60 percent of the respondents selected anger or outrage as the primary emotion that best described their reaction to the issue. Another 30 percent said they were fearful or anxious, while nine percent selected sadness or sorrow.
Only one percent said they felt hope or optimism as various government agencies started investigating the horrible acts of corruption involving ranking government officials.
Angry as most of us Filipinos say we are, a World Values Survey revealed that only three in 10 Filipinos believe bribery is ‘never justifiable.’
This makes the Philippines one of the most tolerant countries toward bribery in Asia. Just 30.6 percent of Filipino respondents outright rejected bribery – much lower than in Indonesia (70.4 percent), Thailand (69.9 percent), or high-capacity states like Japan (81 percent) and Singapore (81.7 percent).
At the other extreme, 7.9 percent of Filipinos said bribery is ‘always justifiable,’ the highest rate in the region. That’s how Filipinos go on survival mode dealing with bureaucratic red tape and patronage politics favored by political dynasties.
Indeed, public service has become a family business in many places in the country.
Politics has been our country’s major industry, reason enough why the economy has failed to keep up with our regional peers. Our political activities do not contribute to GDP growth.
On the contrary, money stolen through ghost projects, with the resulting opportunity cost, reduces our GDP.
Just following the money tells us what our people value most. That’s why our situation is near hopeless.
We can’t even advocate strongman rule to make a drastic change in our society. The last time we tried a dictatorship with BBM’s father, things got worse because the business of the government got intertwined with the business of Mr. Marcos and his cronies.
The economic impact of our failure to make our officials accountable for corruption is significant. Investors are staying away because no one can do business in a country where officials up to the barangay level have a price. That’s what a failed state is.
Suspension of classes
One other thing that’s so destructive is the penchant of our officials to suspend classes without good reason.
This week, DepEd suspended classes in public schools for two days supposedly due to prevalence of flu-like symptoms. If we are in the middle of an epidemic, and it seems we are, two days won’t make a difference. DOH also denies there is an epidemic.
Then the province of Laguna suspended classes for two weeks supposedly because of the possibility of an earthquake on the West Valley Fault. That’s simply stupid because no one can predict when an earthquake will happen.
In Laguna, 13 school days were cancelled from July to September 2025. This recent pronouncement cancelling classes from Oct. 14 to 31, 2025 adds another 14 days, or a total of 27 days. This is around 30 percent of the total school days from June to October 2025. This is very excessive and seriously harms the education, current well-being and the future of the children.
The policy of shifting to online or alternative learning modality is not effective. Most schools do not have this option, and the learning outcome is very much inferior. Studies show that online learning is only 37 to 52 percent as effective as face-to-face learning.
These class cancellations have undoubtedly contributed to very poor learning outcomes where the Philippines scores lower than Palestine (which has been at war) and Papua New Guinea.
We must get serious about our problems and not aggravate our current crisis through thoughtless decisions.