A country’s credibility is tested by what happens after corruption is exposed.
When President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. declared “Mahiya naman kayo” in his July 2025 State of the Nation Address (SONA), he helped open a Pandora’s box. Flood-control controversies exposed a deeper question: can government dismantle the system that allows public money to become private wealth?
For Filipinos rebuilding flooded homes, the answer is personal. For businesses deciding where to invest, it is economic. For the President, it could define his legacy.
The challenge now is to turn public outrage into reforms that Filipinos can feel—and institutions they can trust.
I want the President to succeed. Success means families better protected, workers keeping more of their earnings, businesses creating jobs, and public money reaching its intended purpose.
That is a legacy worth working for.
Behind every failed project are families exposed to danger and businesses forced to start again. Taxpayers pay twice: first for the promised protection, then for the consequences of its failure.
Overtaxed. Underserved.
“First-world taxes, third-world services” captures that broken bargain. It expresses the distance between what citizens sacrifice and what government delivers.
When families struggle while politically connected fortunes grow, people can feel that only politicians are becoming richer and more powerful. Eventually, distrust of officials becomes distrust of government itself.
We need a democratic reset that changes how power is acquired, exercised, and held accountable.
Congress must accept the scrutiny it demands of others. Publish operating expenditures, recipients, and supporting records. A signature certifying expenditure cannot, by itself, establish value for taxpayers. Confidential funds require rigorous verification by authorized auditors.
The Commission on Audit (COA) should maintain a public tracker of significant findings, agency responses, corrective action, recoveries, and referrals. An audit finding is not a conviction. Neither should it disappear after the headlines fade.
Enact an enforceable anti-dynasty law. Disclose campaign financing and the people who ultimately own government contractors. Close conflict-of-interest loopholes involving relatives, intermediaries, and corporate layers.
Public office must never become an inherited business model.
Tax policy can expose what procurement records conceal. I propose a nationwide, risk-based investigation of unexplained wealth, prioritizing credible discrepancies involving public officials, contractors, and beneficial owners.
Lawfully match asset declarations with tax returns, corporate interests, government payments, and campaign disclosures. Require explanations, protect due process, and prosecute where evidence warrants.
An independently justified tax investigation should proceed regardless of impeachment’s outcome. The standard must reach everyone—from barangay officials to the President, including Vice President Sara Duterte, former House Speaker Martin Romualdez and presidential allies.
Political affiliation must never determine who gets audited or who gets spared.
Modernize the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) and Customs through integrated data, electronic invoicing, automated risk-based audit selection, and accountable officers. Reform bank-secrecy restrictions where they obstruct properly authorized investigations, with safeguards against misuse.
Meanwhile, spare compliant, low-risk small businesses unnecessary audit. Simplify records and evaluate our proposed optional 10% gross-sales tax in lieu of all national and local taxes for eligible businesses with annual sales up to ₱100 million, including its effects on low-margin firms and local revenues.
Reform must also reach workers’ paychecks. Our proposed tax-free-income roadmap is ₱400,000 in 2026, ₱800,000 in 2027, and ₱1 million by 2028 especially for single parents, senior citizens or married couples with more than two dependents, with automatic inflation adjustment.
Publish the costs, beneficiaries, and recurring funding sources. Better compliance and durable spending reforms must support permanent relief. Uncertain recoveries of stolen assets cannot finance permanent promises.
Every peso of relief needs a credible funding plan. Every peso collected needs a public purpose.
These are investment reforms.
Investors price uncertainty. A tax incentive loses value when permits have no predictable deadline, customs clearance depends on discretion, or tax interpretations change without explanation.
Modernize the Philippine Economic Zone Authority (PEZA) as the gold standard for red carpet service and investor aftercare.
Every business, regardless of size, must benefit from ease of doing business. Require government agencies to uphold the law’s applicable 3-7-20 working-day processing deadlines through a unified online platform. Let citizens and businesses submit common information once, track applications, and receive clear written decisions. Record every delay, identify responsible officials, and provide a channel for redress—protecting the public from abuse, neglect, and arbitrary treatment. Measure success through timely services, operating businesses, jobs, exports, and opportunities for Filipino suppliers.
My Reimagining the World book series and investment missions abroad advance one conviction: good governance is economic policy. Accountable institutions attract investment, strengthen climate resilience, and ensure that growth creates opportunities to escape poverty.
Promote the Philippines abroad. Reform government at home.
I urge President Marcos to make investment competitiveness, tax fairness, and institutional accountability a coordinated presidential agenda—para sa tunay na Bagong Pilipinas. Set measurable targets, assign clear agency responsibilities, and report progress publicly.
Work with Congress toward a Christmas reform package that abolishes the travel tax, increases workers’ take-home pay through fiscally sustainable relief, and reforms bank-secrecy restrictions to enable properly authorized investigations while protecting legitimate financial privacy.
Direct the BIR to prioritize evidence-based investigations of unexplained wealth, coordinate lawfully with the Ombudsman and other enforcement agencies, and pursue tax-evasion cases where warranted. Recover unlawfully acquired assets and seek penalties through independent courts, regardless of political affiliation.
The opportunity is to turn accountability into economic confidence—and economic confidence into better lives for Filipinos.
Credibility must begin at the top.
In 1997, the Supreme Court upheld collection measures involving a Marcos estate-tax assessment of approximately ₱23.29 billion. In 2003, it ordered forfeiture of approximately US$658 million in Marcos Swiss deposits, including accumulated interest. These are historical judicial findings—not statements of today’s outstanding balances. The estate’s obligations are distinct from the President’s personal liabilities.
The President should authorize lawful disclosure of his own tax-compliance records, support an authoritative accounting of estate-tax assessments and collections, and protect independent enforcement of final judgments.
An anti-dynasty law must apply to his family as firmly as to his opponents.
Accountability gains moral force when it reaches those demanding it.
I hope we are approaching a tipping point: when public anger becomes a sustained demand for institutions that work. The next President should inherit workers keeping more of their earnings, businesses competing on merit, and a government citizens can trust.
Mr. President, you opened Pandora’s box. The test of your legacy is whether the government you leave behind can hold the powerful accountable—even when the next President would rather it did not.
The strongest legacy is a government that works—and keeps working after its President leaves office.
