The year 2025 would be remembered in Philippine history as one where massive corruption involving multiple tiers of the government bureaucracy shook the ruling system to its very core.
This corruption scandal fueled massive public outrage manifested in gigantic protests on a scale unprecedented in almost a decade. So extensive were the exposés that more and more Filipinos had come to realize the insidious and systemic nature of bureaucratic corruption, and the urgent need for solutions and alternatives beyond those offered by reactionary elections.
The people also saw first-hand how inextricably intertwined bureaucratic corruption is with repression as the State viciously utilized fascist violence to persecute anti-corruption protesters.
Protest calls of “Lahat ng sangkot, dapat managot” that reverberate with the more generic “Ikulong na iyan, mga kurakot” are demanding true justice and an end to impunity. The people demand that accountability should not only apply to corrupt political rivals like the Dutertes and to those at the lower rungs of the bureaucracy, it should include elements within the ruling clique and reach the very top—no less than Ferdinand Marcos Jr. himself.
Events, especially in the last quarter of the year, were living lessons of bureaucrat capitalism, the phenomenon by which government officials use State power and public funds for personal gain and brandish the State’s coercive power to maintain their privileged status.