From Noise to Clarity: A Scattered Movement Must Unite to Win Real Accountability.

Introduction: Too Many Battles, No Single War

The anti-corruption rallies scheduled today arrive with a paradox: they are both overflowing with targets and lacking one. Each participating group carries its own agenda—some against the Marcoses, others against the Dutertes, still others against the system itself. What should be a unified call for accountability risks becoming a cacophony of voices, where clarity is drowned in a sea of competing demands.

One rally leader even warned against those who would “makikisakay”—a veiled reference to the Left. But in doing so, he revealed not leadership, but division. At the very moment when the country needs solidarity the most, divisive lines are being drawn. The instinct should have been the opposite: to call for a united front, to stitch together these disparate energies into a single banner. Instead, the seeds of fragmentation are already being sown.

The Perils of Mixed Messaging

Movements succeed not only through moral fervor but through disciplined clarity. “Ano ba talaga, kuya?” is the lingering question. What is the demand? Is it for the President to resign? For the Vice President not to succeed him? For plundered funds to be returned? For systemic reform of pork-barrel-style allocations and flood-control scams? Each is worthy, but taken together without prioritization, they blur into confusion.

Social media reflects this dissonance. One group wears black shirts declaring something like: “Don’t demand that BBM resign, because ang papalit ay si Sara.” This is the kind of cognitive knot that immobilizes action. Instead of focusing firepower on corruption itself, the campaign is preoccupied with second-guessing succession scenarios.

Meanwhile, the Powerful Move Quietly

As the movement gropes for coherence, political figures named in controversies take defensive positions—some resign, others lie low, still others are abroad—while inquiries churn. In recent weeks, the Commission on Audit (COA) has publicly flagged additional “ghost” flood-control projects and filed new complaints, part of an expanded fraud audit covering DPWH flood-control spending [1]. These reports underscore how incomplete or non-existent works can thrive under opaque budgeting and weak oversight, with potential irregularities spanning officials and private contractors alike.

And while politicians lie low, their partners in plunder remain in the shadows. Contractor families—the Discayas among them—are often cited by observers as emblematic of the racket. Allegations of overpriced flood projects, ghost infrastructures, and padded contracts have swirled for years in Senate and House inquiries. 

The Politician-Contractor Nexus

Contractors questioned on their lavish lifestyles have even invoked the right against self-incrimination [2]. Whether proven in every case or not, the pattern is depressingly familiar: funds are released, costs balloon, projects crumble—or vanish altogether—and both politicians and contractors walk away richer.

Here lies the deeper truth: corruption is not sustained by politicians alone, but by the symbiosis between political patrons and contractor-beneficiaries. Without the contractors who enable and profit from these deals, the machinery of looting would grind to a halt. Tools to stop this already exist—blacklisting rules under the Government Procurement Policy Board (GPPB) allow erring suppliers and contractors to be barred from future projects—but enforcement and follow-through are everything [3][4].

The Need for a Single Banner

History offers a lesson. The rallies that shook the Marcos dictatorship in the 1980s did not succeed because they were scattered in a dozen directions. They succeeded because they coalesced into a single cry: “Tama na, sobra na, palitan na!” Clarity emboldened the many, not just the organized few.

Likewise, during the 2013 Million People March, the demand was equally pointed: abolish the pork barrel system. That clarity galvanized broad participation and helped pave the way for the Supreme Court’s landmark ruling later that year, declaring the congressional pork barrel (PDAF) unconstitutional [5][6][7].

Today’s anti-corruption movement must relearn this lesson. Its moral energy is undeniable, but its narrative is weak. If the demand is resignation, declare it without hesitation. If the demand is restitution, outline the mechanisms to recover stolen wealth. 

If the demand is systemic reform, identify the precise targets: pork-like discretionary insertions, collusion with favored contractors, bid-rigging, ghost projects, and substandard works. 

And with every target, combine the solution: full e-procurement, project geotagging, independent technical audits, mandatory publication of as-built plans, real-time COA dashboards, and strict blacklisting of erring contractors. 

Only when outrage is paired with clarity can it cut deep. Ambiguity serves not the people but the corrupt—whether they occupy Manila’s halls of power or profit quietly as contractors in the provinces.

Toward a Sharper Campaign

If today’s rallies are to avoid becoming tomorrow’s footnotes, three steps are urgent:

1. Unify the Front. All groups—Left, Center, and Right—should be urged toward one non-negotiable demand (e.g., “Recover and return the money,” or “Abolish discretionary insertions and blacklist colluding firms”). Differences can be postponed until after a concrete win.

2. Name the Enemy Precisely. Not in generalities like “corruption,” but in specifics: the scheme (ghost projects, padded contracts), the enabling offices (procurement, implementing agencies), and the mechanisms of capture. When naming examples—politicians or contractors—anchor them in publicly reported inquiries, COA flags, or court actions [1][2].

3. Create and Empower a Recovery Mechanism. Demand a modern, truly independent PCGG-style body (with prosecutorial coordination) to: (a) freeze assets, (b) claw back ill-gotten gains, and (c) blacklist crooked contractors—using existing GPPB rules but with stronger enforcement and public transparency. Historical precedent shows the state can recover assets with the right mandate and political will [8].

Conclusion: A Moment That Demands Clarity

The tragedy of the Filipino nation is not only that it is robbed, but that its outrage is scattered. A people’s cry can move mountains, but only if it is sharp, focused, and sustained. Today’s anti-corruption movement is at a crossroads: it can either dissipate into the fog of competing slogans or it can forge itself into a spear that pierces the heart of brazen impunity.

The question is not whether corruption must be fought—it must. The question is whether the people can summon the discipline to fight it together, under one banner, with one voice, until stolen funds are returned—and until the contractor-politician nexus that enabled the looting is finally broken. 

References

1. COA flags 4 more ghost flood control projects, files new raps. (2025, Sept.). Philippine Daily Inquirer.

2. AP News. (2024). Philippines Senate and House inquiries into flood-control anomalies.

3. Government Procurement Policy Board (GPPB). (2017, Dec. 21). Resolution No. 40-2017: Uniform Guidelines for Blacklisting of Manufacturers, Suppliers, Distributors, Contractors and Consultants.

4. Government Procurement Policy Board (GPPB). (2017). NPM No. 036-2017.

5. Amnesty International Philippines. (2022, July). Million People March (2013): ProtestPH.

6. Reuters. (2013, Aug. 26). Tens of thousands of Filipinos protest “pork barrel” funds.

7. Greco Belgica, et al. v. Ochoa, et al., G.R. No. 208566 (Supreme Court of the Philippines, Nov. 19, 2013).

8. Presidential Commission on Good Government (PCGG). (2023). Year-End Report 2022: Asset Recovery and Disposition.