By The Straits Times | Created at 2026-09-02 06:06:34 | Updated at 2026-09-02 07:03:21
1 hour ago
MANILA – Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr was standing onstage, microphone in hand, singing a love song to his wife.
The scene was from an Aug 26 birthday celebration for First Lady Louise Araneta-Marcos at their home in Makati City, beside the capital Manila. But by the time videos of it spread online days later, persistent monsoon rains had inundated communities across the main island of Luzon, leaving dozens dead and millions affected.
The contrast quickly drew anger online.
“That’s my president. He doesn’t care about the plight of the poor as long as (he) can party the night away,” commented Facebook user Joshua Javier Guitang in a repost of the video by local news agency NewsWatchPlus.
The backlash reflects how a widening corruption scandal over billions of pesos in flood control spending has sharpened public scrutiny of the country’s political elite, with displays of comfort and wealth increasingly seen not merely as poor optics, but as symbols of a deeper failure of governance.
Days later, in flood-hit Pampanga province north of Manila, Governor Lilia Pineda, Vice-Governor Dennis Pineda and San Fernando Mayor Vilma Caluag were photographed inspecting affected communities while wearing clothes and rain gear from luxury brands like Prada, Balmain and Burberry.
The politicians’ outfits, including jackets costing tens of thousands of pesos, became targets of online ridicule. But the backlash came amid a much bigger controversy over billions of pesos poured into flood control infrastructure projects that allegedly turned out to be substandard or, in some cases, non-existent.
Where did the money for flood mitigation go?
The Philippines loses as much as 70 per cent of government funds for flood-control projects to corruption, amounting to up to US$2 billion (S$2.58 billion) and shaving economic growth over the past two years, Finance Secretary Ralph Recto told a Senate budget hearing on Sept 2.
The irony, perhaps, was that it was Marcos himself who brought the scale of the alleged corruption to public attention in 2024, setting off investigations that have since led to court cases and arrests involving lawmakers and other officials.
Such public displays of wealth by politicians have caused outrage in the Philippines in past years. But Jean Encinas-Franco, a political scientist at the University of the Philippines-Diliman said people have become more willing to call officials out, particularly after the flood scandal investigations.
The government has been investigating alleged kickbacks, ghost projects and other irregularities involving money meant to protect communities from floods. In one case filed in August, anti-graft investigators said a 77 million peso ($1.6 million) river protection project in Bulacan province had been declared completed despite being non-existent. The Justice Department said in July that more than 841 million pesos in cash linked to anomalous flood-control projects had so far been recovered.
The allegations have made the link between corruption and the country’s worsening floods more tangible: money meant to protect communities from rising waters was allegedly lost to kickbacks and projects that were substandard or never built.
“The uncontrollable flooding is caused by corrupt and inept public officials, which means the suffering we’re feeling now is directly caused by the very people we elect,” said lawyer and political analyst Michael Henry Yusingco of the Ateneo School of Government in Manila.
“We vote for these people precisely to prevent or mitigate suffering, and yet they do the exact opposite.”
Marcos’ spokesperson, Undersecretary Claire Castro, on Sept 1 pushed back against criticism of the president, saying the birthday celebration took place before heavy rains caused severe flooding in Metro Manila and Central Luzon.
Castro said the video had created the false impression that Marcos was serenading his wife at the height of the floods. She added that the president had already finished his work before joining the celebration and continued monitoring the weather and the government’s response.
“He continued to monitor the situation and what the weather conditions might be... At that time, however, there was no bad weather. That is what we need to clarify,” Castro said.
Governor Pineda, meanwhile, had already apologised to the public amid criticism of her clothing, telling local TV network One News that the episode was a “wake-up call”.
She said she respected people’s opinions but insisted she was not someone who lived extravagantly, and that she happened to wear what she had picked up that morning.
“I respect their comments. It’s a wake-up call for me. But I don’t live extravagantly… Sorry if I happened to pick up those clothes that day,” Pineda said. Her response angered netizens even more, with several people calling her out for being insensitive.
How to move beyond viral outrage
Yusingco said it was understandable for flood victims to become angry upon seeing officials visiting them in clothes and accessories potentially worth more than what some residents could earn in years.
But he warned against allowing that anger to end merely with viral posts online.
For him, the more difficult question is whether Filipinos can turn their frustration into sustained demands for accountability from their leaders, particularly in areas dominated by powerful families with few viable challengers.
The Marcoses and the Pinedas are among the Philippines’ most entrenched dynasties, dominating both local and national elections for decades.
Yusingco said telling voters simply to “vote better” misses part of the problem – when there are no credible alternatives. He said public anger now should push communities to identify and support credible candidates who can challenge established political families in the 2028 elections, when the Philippines chooses its next president and other local leaders down to the village level.
“That anger and outrage should be pushing us to groom alternative candidates, whoever they may be. They could be your neighbour, they could be someone new, like a councillor who is silently doing his job,” Yusingco said. “And then, we should help them so that come 2028, they’ll be able to run for office.”
Franco agreed that electing leaders more mindful of accountability was part of the answer, but said the country also needed to demand better policies from the government.
Citizens can press their representatives in Congress, which approves the national budget and scrutinises spending on flood-control projects, while civil society groups can participate in congressional consultations and hearings on proposed measures. These provide avenues to push for a more coordinated, long-term approach to flood management.
“We should advocate for the establishment of the (flood control) master plan so that this never happens again,” she said.
