OUT of the total 6.352 trillion national budget, the World Bank estimated that 20 percent goes to corruption. However, based on anecdotal information that goes around the construction sector, corrupt kickbacks in the past years have gone as high as 25 percent to 50 percent. On the basis of 20 percent corruption, this means P1.2 trillion goes to line the pockets of corrupt politicians and their chosen contractors. If the 25 percent kickback is the prevailing cost of corruption in government, the plundered amount will go as high as P1.588 trillion. And on the basis of 50 percent corruption, the amount of plunder will be P3 trillion.
In the recent flood control scandal, which the president himself exposed and committed to prosecute, the kickbacks went as far as 100 percent, giving birth to the now infamous “ghost projects” because the official government documents would show that they were completed yet, in reality, they were never commenced nor completed. Indeed, greed has no limits. The corrupt parties involved in this plunder are billionaires themselves. Hence, this would belie the often-quoted argument that the rich do not steal. They steal on the basis of their level. As for these billionaires, they would not steal in millions. They steal in billions.
In 2025, the government collected approximately P1.39 trillion in value-added tax (VAT). Since most of our people these days are concerned with their electricity bills, it is worth noting that, according to House Bill 6740 filed in Congress, the 12 percent VAT on electricity sales amounts to approximately P155.53 billion.
Comparing the amount of corruption versus the VAT collections annually, one can figure that the amount of total VAT collections is almost total the amount of corruption. Hence, one can argue that if only the government can be run with the least amount of corruption, the suffering poor Filipino people can be unburdened of the 12 percent VAT. Perhaps, the VAT collection simply created a “copious layer of fat” in the national budget for pork barrel to flourish like never before and the national government can be forced to be efficient and the greed “moderated” once VAT is removed.
On top of the plundered trillion-peso public funds that go to the pockets of corrupt public officials and their cronies, hundreds of millions of pesos of social welfare funds from the national budget boost the largesse at the disposal of the politicians. These are the 4Ps, the AICS, Maifip, and Tupad programs.
For the 4Ps (Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program), the allocated budget is P114.2 billion. For AICS (Assistance to Individuals in Crisis Situations), the budget allocation is P43 billion. For Maifip (Medical Assistance to Indigent and Financially Incapacitated Patients Program), the amount of allocation is P42 billion. And for Tupad (Tulong Panghanapbuhay sa Ating Disadvantaged/Displaced Workers), the Department of Labor allocated P18.29 billion. All of these direct dole-out programs, which politicians use to consolidate political support from their constituencies, amount to a total budget allocation of P217.5 billion. Still, this amount is a mere 20 percent of the amount of public funds plundered in corrupted projects.
Our national government could fund for five straight years the direct dole-out programs from the amount of stolen public funds in the ghost flood control projects in a single year. As between the corruption in public works that goes directly to the pockets of the billionaire plunderers, at least the 4Ps, AICS, Maifip, and Tupad directly benefit the people who avail of them. We can probably overlook the fact that these are used to “buy” political support as long as they directly benefit the people from whose taxes these funds come from anyway. Though from a policy perspective, these programs incentivize the mindset of “mendicancy” instead of self-reliance and building our own capabilities. But since the Filipino people are placed in a “Catch 22” situation between the plunder by billionaire politicians and the political patronage generated in the welfare programs, it will be more acceptable to simply avail of these programs that directly benefit them.
Before we get all distracted with the other numbers, such as system loss, which, aside from being a function of physics and a minuscule amount compared with the colossal extent of plunder, a question must be asked — are our taxes and government fees being spent for the benefit of the Filipino people?
We laud and fully support President BBM for his resolve in pursuing the anti-corruption agenda. If not for his courage and resolve to expose the corruption despite the pain, officially and personally, that he has to endure, the Filipino people would not have seen how the greed has grown from millions to billions and now with the trillions. It is not far, if unchecked with this level of impunity, that the billionaire plunderers in our midst these days increase their level of gluttony. Tomorrow, they will be trillionaires and yet remain plunderers — stealing by the trillions.
