Engineers of Corruption: Like Father, Like Son

Ferdinand Marcos Sr. once styled himself as the country’s great builder. The Cultural Center of the Philippines, the San Juanico Bridge, the Bataan Nuclear Power Plant — projects trumpeted as monuments of progress. But their true legacy? Symbols of plunder, overpriced contracts, and a web of cronies fattened by public money. Behind the glossy propaganda lay the rot: an edifice complex financed by loans, kickbacks, and corruption on a historic scale. Infrastructure became the lifeblood of the dictatorship’s extractive machine.

Before Duterte crowned himself as another “infrastructure president” with “Build, Build, Build,” it was Marcos Sr. who utilized construction as a stage for both glory and graft. Fast forward to 2022. Bongbong Marcos storms back into Malacañang, bankrolled by the same elites that fattened off his father’s regime — and their modern-day counterparts who live off government projects. We’ve come full circle, and as some have warned, infrastructure is just the tip of the iceberg.

Skeletons in the closet

Bongbong’s 2022 presidential campaign was historic, raising eyebrows for both obvious and not-so-obvious reasons. Among the latter would be its donors, which included several contractors who may have taken advantage of an election loophole, as written in this PCIJ report:

Rudhil Construction

“Among Marcos’ top donors is Rodulfo D. Hilot Jr. who donated P20 million. Hilot is listed as president of Rudhil Construction and Enterprises Inc., a Triple A construction firm based in Zamboanga del Sur…Rudhil won contracts worth P3.22 billion from January 2021 to May 15, 2022…It implemented projects of various local government units in Cebu, Bohol, Zamboanga del Sur, Lanao del Norte, as well as the Bureau of Animal Industry and local offices of the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH).”

Quirante Construction

“Jonathan M. Quirante is another donor who has links in the construction industry. He donated P1 million to Marcos. Quirante is listed as the authorized managing officer of Quirante Construction, according to PCAB’s list of licensed contractors. Quirante Construction won over P2.54 billion worth of projects by various local government units in Cebu and the DPWH, among others.”

The report notes that Section 95 of the Omnibus Election Code prevents Marcos from receiving donations from “natural and juridical persons who hold contracts or subcontracts to supply the government or any of its divisions, subdivisions or instrumentalities, with goods or services or to perform construction or other works.” But since Hilot and Quirante donated as individuals and not as the companies or listed government contractors/suppliers, their contributions are completely above board.

A dangerous game

Fast forward further to 2025. A new scandal bursts open: ghost flood control projects. DPWH engineers, contractors, their nepo babies and spouses, lawmakers — a feeding frenzy revealed. The Palace frames it as an anti-corruption crusade. The subtext is clear: a political strike against the Dutertes. But this is no ordinary tussle. This is a gilded Pandora’s Box. The very same contractor networks — the moneyed class that backed Bongbong Marcos’ rise — are precisely the ones who stand to be implicated in this scandal. This is a political weapon that can easily boomerang. What was meant to wound the Dutertes risks detonating beneath Marcos himself.

The truth is, the flood control racket isn’t an aberration. It’s the template. Ghost projects, padded contracts, grease money for lawmakers to channel pork. “Everybody eats” is the SOP. This isn’t a Duterte corruption scheme, nor a Marcos one — it’s the bipartisan, dynastic bloodstream of Philippine politics. Every bridge, every bypass road, every drainage canal has multiple hands dipped in its budget.

For Bongbong Marcos, this is a trap in waiting. To fully pursue the investigation risks exposing the same donors and allies who brought him back to Malacañang. To back down makes the anti-corruption probe look like a farce. Either way, the scandal erodes the foundations he thinks are solid. This is what happens when you build your palace on sand.

World on fire

Now, all of this is happening against a volatile backdrop. In Indonesia, protests rage against authoritarian backsliding. In Nepal, anger explodes over corruption and unemployment. In France, streets fill with fury against elite impunity. The world is convulsing with revolt — and the Philippines, haunted by memories of dictatorship plunder, is far from immune.

The great irony is that Bongbong Marcos, scion of the most corrupt dynasty in Philippine history, is trying to ride an anti-corruption wave at the very moment global publics are revolting against the very system he embodies. Why just now during the absolute worst time? Is it because of apathy or sheer incompetence? Or simply that his advisors could no longer protect him from the hypocrisy of his SONA declarations, now that cities and farmlands are yet again underwater.

That characters such as Baguio Mayor Benjie Magalong had to rise up and speak out, shining a ray of light into the deep-seated darkness of systemic corruption: our young republic’s collective shame. That the co-equal powers of Congress have started equally problematic investigations, taking turns as jesters in their respective courts.

And that a so-called independent commission sets off on the wrong foot in its inclusion of former associate justice Antonio Carpio, who took all but two seconds to draw the ire of netizens for supposed partisanship: “Oh, but why him?” Eerily reminiscent of Marcos Sr. scrambling to put together the Fernando Commission and Agrava Commission, for those old enough to remember them. Band-aids to the fatal wounds of a dictatorship on its knees.

This administration just can’t read the room. We are truly past the point of no return. The President now plays with fire while standing on a gasoline-soaked floor.

The real flood can’t be controlled

We return to the monuments of Marcos Sr. weathered by the justice of time. Some still stand: hulking, expensive, grotesque. White elephants dotting the near-barren landscape, reminders of a regime’s greed. And now the son presides over his own masterwork of corruption — ghost projects as deadly as any dictatorship’s vanity bridge or tower.

The true flood isn’t in Pampanga’s rivers or Bulacan’s flatlands. It’s the flood of history, rising steadily, threatening to wash away the lies and dynasties that still cling to power. Bongbong Marcos may believe he can weaponize corruption to weaken his rivals. But history whispers a darker truth: that he may drown in the very floodwaters of greed that have been surging since his father’s time.