Can political power in the Philippines be disciplined by constitutional mechanisms?
The impeachment complaints against the two highest officials of the land are a critical political stress test of whether real reforms are possible against systematic corruption embedded in elite-dominated power structures.
The complaint against Pres. Marcos is particularly important. This is because the 2023-2025 budgets he signed off on have the biggest unprogrammed appropriations, infrastructure outlays, and flood control projects the country has ever seen — amounting to Php2.1 trillion, Php4.9 trillion, and Php986.5 billion, respectively.
Such massive sums — laden with untold pork barrel — could only have been distributed as a matter of policy and through state mechanisms, like the so-called “balanced baseline managed” or BBM parametric formula used to justify the controversial “allocables.” Testimonial and documentary evidence directly implicating the president are also extremely serious.
How impeachment complaints against the president proceed or do not will reveal much about the balance of forces within Congress. It will also define the credibility of the political system as a whole including the limits of technocratic reform.
Impeachment is a powerful mechanism for holding even the most powerful officials accountable. But if the fate of these complaints is pre-determined by Malacañang’s political strength rather than by evidence of wrongdoing and a real compulsion to root out corruption, the public should read this as a signal that only reforms that do not threaten elite interests will get any traction.
This is why constant public pressure to create more openings for stronger oversight, independent institutions, and more assertive civil society engagement is so essential. This is despite the country’s record of well-meaning reforms being selectively implemented, watered down, or subverted to preserve elite impunity.
The Marcos Jr administration cannot be allowed to claim anti-corruption credentials while preserving its systems of political patronage and control. Accountability cannot stop at the top, and indeed must start there.
