President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. acknowledged on Wednesday that the country is experiencing severe strain as the government intensifies investigations into irregularities involving public works and other agencies. Speaking at the Palace, he compared the scale of the reforms to a medical procedure designed to remove a life-threatening illness, stressing that the transition is bound to be painful.
He said the administration anticipated turbulence once it released the full inventory of flood-control projects from 2022 to 2025, a move that triggered broad scrutiny of longstanding practices. “The truth of the matter is it really has been a difficult time because I knew what we were starting would really be disruptive,” he said.
The President described the overhaul as an effort that cuts deep into a complex bureaucracy. “When you have to excise a cancer out of such a complicated system, you need to do major surgery, and when you do that, you will bleed and that is what we have to go through,” he told reporters.
While he did not outline all the factors contributing to what he called the country’s “difficult anguish,” the investigations have coincided with slower economic activity in households and government, a sharp fall in local stock market performance, and continued weakness of the peso.
Despite this, Marcos emphasized that the hardships must be endured. “We have to go through that pain, the difficult anguish that the country is going through now, but we are Filipinos. We may be bleeding now but we will also heal very quickly.”
Nearly five months after he criticized corrupt officials in his State of the Nation Address, authorities have begun recovering portions of alleged kickbacks linked to overpriced and deficient flood-control projects. The Independent Commission for Infrastructure (ICI), which he created to review questionable public works, has since recommended charges against several individuals, including former Ako Bicol Party-list Rep. Zaldy Co.
“We will continue this campaign on corruption. We will continue our campaign on this abuse and this entitlement that has shocked everyone, myself included,” he said.
He added that the administration is determined to see the reforms through. “I know that it will be done. Once we go through this, we will be able to look back and say, ‘Okay, mahirap yung nangyari pero kailangang gawin at worth it yung pagdurusa para sa naging resulta.’ That is what we are hoping for,” he said.
Marcos also reflected on the consequences of the ongoing crackdown. “I am sorry that people suffer because of it but it had to be done, otherwise we will do things the same way, things that we have discovered being done for the last three decades will just continue,” he said.
Last month, he announced that authorities were preparing to apprehend about 40 individuals implicated in the flood-control controversy, which has been described as the biggest corruption scandal in the country.
