Ateneo urges Marcos to tackle ‘systemic’ corruption
The Ateneo School of Government (ASOG) has challenged President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. to penalize everyone involved in corruption, saying the issue is eroding public trust and institutions.
The ASOG, in a position paper released Monday, called out the “gravity of human greed,” the “blatant disregard for the rule of law,” and the “complicity of leaders in flagrant corrupt practices.”
It said the deepening crisis of corruption is “systematically eroding the integrity of public institutions, and corroding the moral fabric of public service.” It said the amount of resources being siphoned off is “alarming” and “profoundly disturbing.”
“If the administration is serious in weeding out corruption, we demand that it carry out an institutional scrutiny up to the highest echelon of power,” the ASOG said.
It said the “repeated violation of laws and jurisprudence on matters of budget has weakened the rule of law and the system of checks and balances that are cornerstones of our system of representative democracy.”
The ASOG cited a report by the Congressional Policy and Budget Research Department (CPBRD) showing that the Flood Management Program (FMP) had the biggest allocation in the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) budget for 2025, at P254.3 billion ($4.5 billion), or 32.1 percent of the DPWH operations budget. This amount is almost double the 2022 allocation.
The FMP budget is also higher than the budgets of the Department of Social Welfare and Development (P230.1 billion pesos), the Department of Health (P223.2 billion), the Department of Transportation (P180.9 billion) and the Department of Agriculture (P129.0 billion).
“Corruption in the DPWH has spanned decades, and fixing the system requires strong political will from the political leaders,” the ASOG said.
The DPWH budget, which for the first time in 2025 exceeded P1 trillion in the General Appropriations Act (GAA), surpassed the education budget, in violation of the country’s constitutional mandate, it said.
“The Flood-gate scandal, however, is just the tip of the iceberg,” the ASOG said, adding that “deeper and more serious concerns need to be surfaced in the debate.”
The school noted that budget cuts and a shift away from strategic transport, infrastructure, and agriculture-based investments toward “graft-prone projects” like flood control, multi-purpose buildings, local roads, and footbridges “interrogate the supposed rural development priority of the administration.”
The school also warned that the government’s inability to properly manage the budget will lead to continued reliance on borrowing, causing the national debt to grow faster than the GDP.
It noted that 40 percent of the 2025 budget is funded by borrowings. As of the end of April 2025, the national debt climbed to P16.75 trillion from P12.79 trillion in 2022. Debt as a percentage of GDP was 63.1 percent at the end of the second quarter of 2025, which is above the threshold.
“The accumulation of debt, combined with high interest rates, will continue to increase the cost of servicing,” the ASOG said.
It noted that debt servicing costs were 1.6 trillion pesos in 2023, grew by 26 percent in 2024, and are expected to continue growing in 2025, eating up a “significant portion of budget expenditure.”
The ASOG said the administration’s poverty reduction program has also been affected by corruption. It noted that the budget cuts and diversions “are indicative of the priority direction of the administration.”
The Conditional Cash Transfer Program (4Ps) and Philhealth, which are cornerstones of the country’s anti-poverty efforts, have suffered severe budget cuts. In 2025, the 4Ps budget was reduced by P50 billion, while Philhealth’s subsidy was cut to zero.
In their place, the ASOG said, “generous funding was provided to cash dole outs, like AKAP, AICS, MAIFP and TUPAD,” which have “no system for identifying beneficiaries and conditions for qualifying as a beneficiary.” The budget for these programs totaled P130 billion in 2025.
The ASOG said that these programs give politicians “greater role and discretion” in the selection of projects and beneficiaries, turning social services into a matter of “utang na loob” (debt of gratitude) rather than a matter of right.
The school also called on legislators to continue their hearings “in aid of legislation” and “correct the flaws and loopholes of our existing laws,” urging them to “end the grandstanding and public hearings in-aid-of-reelection practice.”
It urged the newly-created Independent Commission on Infrastructure (ICI) to “remain faithful to its mandate and sworn duty, and carry out the investigation truthfully.” It also called on agencies like the DPWH, the Department of Budget and Management (DBM), the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG), and concerned local government units (LGUs) to “give their full support to the investigation of the ICI.”
