Not a day goes by without the latest news reported by “journalists” or opinion issued by the Philippines’ “thought leaders” on the on-going corruption “issue” (more like the latest outrage fad) gripping the nation sailing up our screens. Most people simply scroll past these headlines according them no more than an occasional eye-roll. Names being quoted are just finds-and-replace on tired content templates for “reports” on “wars on corruption” that go back decades. Backdropped against these corruption “scandals” are sad laments on how the Philippines continues to lag behind not just its original southeast Asian peers but also those that had only recently emerged from war and communist malaise.
Why is the Philippines so irrevocably corrupt? That is the bigger question here. It seems Philippine society is an inherently dishonest one. We explored this confronting hypothesis quite a few times and, more recently, in the post “There’s no need to ‘normalise’ dishonesty in the Philippines because dishonesty is already NORMAL there”.
Indeed, one thing that the Philippines isn’t is a truthful society. This is quite evident in the way Filipinos simply do not trust one another. Because they do not trust one another, they break their own laws as a matter of routine — because they do not trust their lawmakers and law enforcers to act in the general public’s best interests.
A Filipino’s word, therefore, is the most overrated notion. It is of very little value. This is why the top political blogger of the Opposition, for example, is known as the “Resibo Queen”. In the vernacular, resibo, is a screenshot included in, say, a blog post to prove one is not lying.
And, as such…
| SUPPORT INDEPENDENT SOCIAL COMMENTARY! Subscribe to our Substack community GRP Insider to receive by email our in-depth free weekly newsletter. Subscribe to our Substack newsletter, GRP Insider! Learn more |
It is therefore not surprising that Filipino politicians are perceived to be generally dishonest. Because, after all, in a democracy, leaders mirror the character of the popular vote.
In practical terms, expecting Filipino leaders, bureaucrats, and administrators to mount even a reasonably pretentious effort to “fight corruption” and institue “reform” remains a quaint national fantasy. After all, one needs honourable leaders to sustain such commitment to change. Unfortunately for Filipinos, honour is not a strong part of Filipino tradition…
Because Filipinos cannot be trusted to be honourable enough to do the right thing on their own volition. And so whereas a standard process will require, say, one approval and one validation, those Filipinos are subject to in their country require double or even triple that. It is easy to see this dynamic at work in one’s routine commute to and from work. There are steel and concrete barriers littered all over Manila’s roads that are meant to physically control traffic flow. Compare this to other cities in the world where mere concepts painted on the road largely suffice.
A “corrupt-free” Philippines is a mere concept — one that has no observable counterpart in the real world, and none seen to be emerging in the foreseeable future. Already, pundits are calling out what is likely to be the same result coming out of the banal sameness of this on-going investigation into massively-failed flood control projects as the Inquirer Editor himself writes today.
The namby-pamby quality of justice and liability meted out in this country when it comes to the powerful and well-connected informs the public’s continuing anger and anxiety over the ongoing flood control investigation. Not only is the probe seemingly moving at a glacial pace, with the President’s much-ballyhooed Independent Commission for Infrastructure defanged and down to its last months, but the trajectory also appears to hew to the disgraceful outcome of the pork barrel scam: In the end, only the small fry will be punished as scapegoats, while the true masterminds of the sweeping criminal racket that stole billions of the people’s money right inside the halls and corridors of government will once again get away.
It may by now be a sad cliché but these classic quotables from the venerable Albert Einstein remains, even more sadly, a relevant reality for the 120+ million strong lot of hapless Filipinos: We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them and, as such, the eminent physicist was said to have said; insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.
- Why are Filipinos so irrevocably corrupt? - January 22, 2026
- Vice Ganda for president of the Philippines: just what Filipinos need! - January 17, 2026
- Blocking Grok and other AI chat apps in the Philippines is a good idea - January 16, 2026