The DDS and the Liberals: Who’s the True Anti-corruption Crusader?

By Joey Salgado

Ever since President Marcos Jr. delivered his “shame” speech in July, we have been regaled with rituals of virtue signaling from parties and personalities donning the fashionable cape of the anti-corruption crusader. And we have reason to be wary.

We have local politicians and national figures who are walking contradictions; outspoken, almost messianic, in their crusade against corruption, yet defenders and enablers of former president Rodrigo Duterte and all the carnage, impunity, and large-scale corruption that his administration embodied. They can be so touchy about their DDS loyalties.

They criticize the brazen lack of transparency from supposedly corrupt congressmen, the country’s drift to moral decay, and wail about our national shame, but dismiss or evade valid questions about their dealings with blacklisted or favored contractors. All attempts at scrutinizing their performance as public officials are immediately tagged as political attacks.

Some of them burst into the public scene freshly-scrubbed with new mandates from the Marcos administration. They stage media events with the nervous energy of over-caffeinated geeks pulling all nighters. All the huffing and puffing and hero posing while inspecting flood control projects in front of television cameras. Throw in choice expletives to ensure social media virality and send low frequency signals to the Duterte faithful and those pining for a rebooted Duterte without the baggage of the Vice President-daughter. The message: “Bata nyo ako.”

Not to be outdone, the Liberal Party wants to remind everyone that they are, or were, the party of virtue and decency. In a recent fellowship, the party faithful reanimated “Kung Walang Corrupt, Walang Mahirap,” a slogan proclaimed dead and buried in 2016 after their candidate lost to the Davao Butcher. The event gave off exclusive club vibes.

Friendly even if unwelcome advice, though. The LP leadership and their pink allies need to acknowledge and confront their past, lest they confirm the long-held accusation of hypocrisy and elitism.

When they were in power, the Liberals were also generous in dispensing taxpayer’s money, in the form of Disbursement Acceleration Program (DAP) funds, to party members and allies in Congress (The same members and allies who immediately pledged undying loyalty to Duterte after the election). The DAP funds sweetened the impeachment and conviction of former chief justice Renato Corona. When public outrage over the Napoles scandal led to a Supreme Court decision declaring the disbursement unconstitutional, pork barrel received a new title: congressional insertions.

The Liberals dealt with political enemies, real or imagined, with ruthless cunning. It was a playbook copied from the Arroyo administration, coated in self-righteousness and the resolute belief that they alone tread the straight path. That path led us to six years of darkness.

Performance as theater

Widespread indignation over corruption has provided an expedient cover for these personalities and parties raring to return to power. We are witnessing performance not in pursuit of shaking the status quo or ending corruption with finality, but performance as theater.

The next presidential election will be another attempt at restoration. And none of the visible and outspoken players will be looking out for the Marcoses after 2028. You can expect the DDS to demand payback, while the Liberals couldn’t care less.

Every presidential candidate since the 1986 EDSA Revolution has pledged to eradicate corruption. The Liberals even made it the key pillar of their 2010 campaign. But corruption did not only persist; it mutated and grew, became more brazen and institutionalized.

This offers a cautionary tale, particularly for those who plan to enter politics with their idealism intact.

During the Estrada and Arroyo administrations, several young leaders emerged and captured the public’s attention. They were hailed for fighting seemingly unwinnable battles against sitting presidents, applauded for standing on the right side of history even if they were cast out by their peers. The people rewarded them with higher office. But these young leaders eventually turned into those they once condemned, forgetting their idealism while retaining and perfecting the ability to casually invoke the Bible and the law to justify their unpardonable opportunism, to exist and survive through calculated acts of pretense.

The national obsession with corruption, for which we begrudgingly thank the President, has been hijacked by these political forces. It’s a ticket to winning the ultimate political prize. It’s also a hammer by which to smash the incumbent’s eroding political capital. And as in past elections, this single-issue obsession will deprive us yet again the opportunity to have a deeper and difficult national conversation of what really ails us as a nation.

This article also appears in Rappler