“Ppublic omarginal forceICE is a public trust. people ofFOfficers and employees must be accountable to the people at all times, they must serve with full responsibility, honesty, loyalty and emarginal forceAct with decency, patriotism and justice and live a modest life.
This is a quote from the 1987 Constitution of the Philippines, Article XI, Section 1, “Accountability of Public Officials”. A 36-page MSWord-slide of this “Code of Conduct” is available on the website of the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH), as it contains the following details:
• An Act Providing for the Functional and Structural Organization and Other Purposes of the Office of the Ombudsman (Republic Act No. 6770)
• Anti-Corruption and Corrupt Practices Act (Republic Act No. 3019)
• Rules Implementing the Code of Conduct and Ethical Standards for Public Officials and Employees (Republic Act No. 6713)
Rule IV: Transparency of transactions and access to information
Rule VII: Public Disclosure
Rule VIII: Review and Compliance Process
Rule IX: Conflict of Interest and Disinvestment
Rule XI: Penalties
Rule XII: Free Voluntary Service
Reading the public declaration of the DPWH's Code of Principles and Conduct, it breaks the disillusioned and angry Filipino hearts and souls that DPWH officials were knowingly committing wrongs of deplorable magnitude, shamefully corrupt and greedy by completely disregarding their oath as public officials upholding the public trust.
“Revelations of irregularities in flood control projects have once again exposed the rampant corruption in Philippine public works and infrastructure. The release of the 2025 World Risks Report, which named the country as the world's most disaster-prone, has highlighted the seriousness of the issue. Its warnings on flood threats and increasing vulnerabilities from climate change and rapid urbanization were followed by the landfall of Severe Tropical Storm Oppong on the same day as the report's release. Was severely underlined from – September 24, 2025 – 15.th Storm of the year, resulting in severe flooding, destruction and loss of life and property. The convergence of scandal, disaster and public outrage – symbolized by the trillion peso march just days earlier (September 21) – prompts a reckoning: Disasters are not just natural and climate change phenomena, but moral indictments of state failure,” the University of the Philippines Center for Integrative and Development Studies (PIDS) declared in its October 2, 2025 statement.
“A moral indictment of state failure,” PIDS diagnosed. “The ongoing Senate Blue Ribbon Committee inquiry has exposed an elaborate kickback delivery system – based on mutual benefit agreements between favored private contractors and a hierarchy of government entities – in the plundering of public funds from flood infrastructure projects. Political payoffs are normalized as a cost of doing business. In turn, favored contractors operate under the patronage of district engineers, lawmakers and executive officials, while ghost projects, shoddy work and dangerous infrastructure proliferate. The evidence, however, has also revealed a nefarious orchestration of selective truth-telling – designed to expose systemic theft rather than protect political patrons and realign coalitions, as the spectacle of blame-shifting raises deeper questions: Can accountability prevail in a state where the infrastructures of impunity are as deeply embedded as the infrastructures of corruption they protect?
Let the development experts from Uttar Pradesh tell it as it is (hence the long direct quotes from their analyzes and conclusions). It is really difficult for the common citizen to understand and accept that the public officials whom we have trusted have “betrayed us”. Then there is the terrible satire on our guilty collective conscience that we, the people, have allowed all the anomalies and corruption to happen and we have done nothing or very little to stop it.
Columnist Manolo Quezon, in his article on January 12 inquirer The column, reported on a Social Weather Station (SWS) survey, which revealed: “Broadly speaking, three in four Filipinos consider bribery to be corruption (but a quarter do not share the same view); two-thirds consider misusing public or corporate funds corrupt; about the same number consider bribery for services contracts corrupt (but one-third think it is OK). Less than half think that evading taxes or regulatory requirements, insider trading, or financial fraud is corrupt (more than half think it is OK), and more than two-thirds do not think that nepotism or favoritism in hiring or promotion is corrupt, while eight in 10 Filipinos see nothing corrupt in not disclosing conflicts of interest. Quezon's judgment: “There seems to be an inherent moral resilience in our society, in which corruption is sanctioned more than enough to become willing collaborators.”
“Moral flexibility” sounds like embarrassingly poor branding for our society. In a layman's intuitive definition of objective morality as categorical right versus categorical wrong, there can be no toggle back and forth from what is right to what is wrong – there is only black or white, no gray in between. “Someone who knowingly commits an objectionable act, even if he knows the difference between right and wrong, is immoral,” says psychologist. verywellmind.com clarify. “Someone who accepts the distinction between right and wrong, but who is not concerned with morality, is immoral.” Moral flexibility makes allowances and compromises while consciously or subconsciously leaning toward situational self-interest or self-preservation. “The end justifies the means” or “It depends (on the situation)” are taglines of ethical “flexibility”.
The SWS findings on changing moral values on corruption among Filipinos are worrying. The dangerous tendency by the majority of public officials and functionaries to indulge in leniency or even to actually condone or condone wrongdoing, suggests a reversal of the momentum towards peace, harmony and development of this struggling country, the Philippines, in a competitive world.
But corrupt government officials should not be allowed to betray the country and bring people into poverty. National Artist of Literature F. Sionil Jose said in 2006, “…(ultimately) we are poor because we have lost our moral confidence. We condone nepotism and corruption and we do not ostracize or punish the wicked among us. Nepotism and corruption are both dysfunctional, but we allow their practice because our loyalty is to family or friend, not to the broader good.”
The Pulse Asia survey conducted between December 12 and 15, 2025 (published January 12) found that 59% of respondents believe those responsible for the billion-peso flood control scandal will go to jail, while only 13% think they will escape punishment. Another 28% were unsure. Although still a majority, 59% in December were 12 points lower than the 71% of respondents in September 2025 who believed flood control culprits would be punished.
44 percent of Filipino adults believe the justice system can successfully prosecute high-level corruption cases such as the flood control scandal. Meanwhile, the Pulse Asia survey showed that 24% expressed disbelief, and 33% were unsure.
But following the latest news on the flood control inquiry, the confidence polled that justice will be served may not be true. ABS-CBN News reported on January 19 that inspections of flood control projects from 2016 to 2025 will have to be restarted due to alleged discrepancies in grid coordinates submitted by former DPWH Secretary Manuel Bonoan to the investigating offices. DPWH Undersecretary Arthur Bisnar said the Armed Forces of the Philippines and the Philippine National Police have inspected 10,238 flood control projects so far. Of these, 252 were declared non-existent or “ghosts”. He said that the authorities will have to re-think about these projects. back to square one.
Is public office not a public trust?
Amelia HC Ylagan is a Doctor of Business Administration from the University of the Philippines.
ahcylagan@yahoo.com