President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s recent campaign against corruption in flood control projects is a spectacle of hypocrisy, a carefully staged performance that collapses under scrutiny. His fiery rhetoric during his fourth State of the Nation Address on July 28, 2025, where he scolded corrupt officials with a theatrical “Mahiya naman kayo!” and launched the “Sumbong sa Pangulo” website, might fool some into believing he’s serious about reform. His visits to defective projects in Calumpit and a “ghost” project in Baliuag, Bulacan, where he expressed being “very angry” at crumbling concrete and non-existent structures, add to the drama. But let’s not be swayed by this political theater. Marcos and his family’s history, coupled with his administration’s actions, reveal a deeply compromised figurehead whose anti-corruption posturing is as hollow as the ghost projects he decries.

First, Marcos’ authorization of nearly P1 trillion for flood control projects since 2023—P174.3 billion in 2023, P282.5 billion in 2024, and nearly P300 billion in 2025—undermines his newfound outrage. As the one who signs the General Appropriations Act (GAA) into law each December, Marcos has personally greenlit these bloated budgets, which Congress inflates with pork barrel insertions, like the P288 billion added by lawmakers in the 2024 budget’s bicameral meetings. If he was genuinely shocked by the corruption, why didn’t he slash these budgets in 2024 or 2025 after witnessing the failures? Instead, he’s proposing P269.7 billion for 2026, fully aware that Congress will likely bloat it further as he nears lame-duck status. This isn’t ignorance—it’s complicity. Marcos, a seasoned politician raised in the heart of his father’s regime, knows exactly how the game of lawmakers, district engineers, and contractors works. His feigned surprise is an insult to Filipinos who’ve watched this flood control racket persist under his watch.

Second, Marcos’ reliance on Congress to investigate these anomalies is a farce. Lawmakers, many of whom profit from the very pork projects they insert, cannot credibly probe themselves. The House’s “Tri-Committee” formed on August 20 to investigate flood control corruption is a textbook case of the fox guarding the henhouse. Representative Leila de Lima rightly called out this conflict of interest, and even Senate President Francis Escudero’s admitted ties to a top contractor raise red flags. Senator Panfilo Lacson’s exposé on Oriental Mindoro’s defective projects, including P1.9 billion in shoddy works, is commendable, but it’s naive to think Congress as a whole will deliver justice when many are complicit. Marcos’ applause from lawmakers during his SONA was telling—they clapped not for accountability but for the cover of his rhetoric, knowing their own investigations will likely fizzle out. Only an independent body, free from congressional influence, can credibly tackle this mess, but Marcos shows no interest in pushing for one.

Most damningly, no Marcos can ever credibly champion an anti-corruption campaign. Marcos Jr.’s anger over a P55-million ghost project in Baliuag pales in comparison to the staggering P303 billion in unpaid estate taxes his family owes the Bureau of Internal Revenue, not to mention the estimated P125 billion in ill-gotten wealth from his father’s dictatorship that remains unrecovered. The P55 million is a mere 0.03% of the Marcoses’ tax liability—petty cash by their standards. Growing up in the shadow of Martial Law’s crony capitalism, Marcos Jr. witnessed firsthand how his family and their allies plundered the nation. Imelda Marcos’ infamous 1998 claim that the family “practically own[ed] everything in the Philippines” from utilities to real estate is a chilling reminder of their legacy. The ostentatious wealth of contractors like Sarah Discaya, whose construction firm amassed riches from DPWH contracts, mirrors the “imeldific” excesses of the Marcoses during their heyday. For Marcos Jr. to pose as a corruption crusader while his family’s ill-gotten wealth remains untouched is the height of hypocrisy.

Marcos’ actions are all bark and no bite—a performative display to appease a flood-weary public. His administration’s failure to prosecute a single individual despite years of known corruption, coupled with his continued approval of massive flood control budgets, suggests he’s more interested in optics than justice.

The “Sumbong sa Pangulo” website and his Bulacan site visits are mere props in a script written to distract from his family’s tainted legacy and his own inaction. Filipinos deserve more than this charade. If Marcos truly cared, he’d push for an independent probe, slash pork-laden budgets, and confront his family’s own financial sins. Until then, his anti-corruption crusade is just another flood of empty promises, leaving the nation submerged in the same old corruption.

(TAMBULI NG BAYAN-Ronnie Estrada) #BagongPilipinas #DPWH #FloodControlPH #marcoshypocrisy #Kongreso #MartinRomualdez #niñaromualdezestela #SumbongSaPangulo