Commission on Audit (COA), an independent watchdog for government spending, flags nearly all Duterte-appointed government agencies in its annual audit reports. While they could not conclude that corruption did actually transpire, COA noted various deficiencies in the use of public funds, with some amounting to billions of unused or underutilized taxpayer money.

There was public outcry as soon as the reports were released, especially as the Filipino people continue to face crisis after crisis in all aspects of daily life: from the worsening pandemic to the historic economic recession. The mishandling of funds is not only irresponsible, but also criminal as peoples’ lives are at stake.

Particularly, the Department of Health (DOH) received an outpouring of criticism as COA found deficiencies amounting to a whooping Php 67 Billion in its COVID-19 budget. Moreover, Php 62 million was flagged because of noncompliance with laws and rules on spending, while Php 95 million was the amount of expired or expiring medicines not given away to the public.

DOH Secretary Francisco Duque III released a video statement appealing to the people to stop bullying his office. “Winarak niyo kami,” a tearful Duque says. But the theatrics won’t work anymore for the increasingly agitated public. Calls for his resignation quickly fired online. Memes of his “crocodile tears” spread online with witty captions.

Meanwhile, Duterte appeals to COA to defer releasing the reports as it could shed the government offices in a bad light. He insists COA is “out of line” and suggests “reconfiguring” the audit reports. Despite the public outcry, Duterte still asserts his allegiance to the flagged offices.

This defensive stance toward the audit reports is not surprising when we consider Duterte’s own history of coddling personalities with questionable track records for graft and corruption. He cozies up to ousted-president Joseph Estrada and has even helped former president Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo evade punishment for corruption. Early into his term, Duterte helped white-wash the Marcosian legacy with a hero’s burial for the late dictator and the dismissal of the decades-long graft and corruption case against their family.

Up to this day, the public still has to have closure over the mafia-like corruption that were alleged in various government agencies such as PhilHealth and Bureau of Customs. In words, Duterte likes to stand firm against certain “oligarchs” while in deeds, he props up his own cronies like Bong Go and Dennis Uy. Clearly, Duterte is the foremost bureaucrat capitalist in the country.

Bureaucrat capitalism, simply put, is the use of government positions as a business venture to incur wealth and profit. He uses the presidential seat as a pivot point for more corruption, as well as every other government agency he can get a hold of. His “whole-of-nation” approach is not only applied to his bloody counterinsurgency campaign, but also toward his approach in ensuring a strong grip of the whole bureaucracy to fatten his and his cronies’ pockets.

In the upcoming elections, Duterte and his ilk will do anything in their capacity to maintain this position to evade culpability, as well as to continue their goal of draining the people’s treasury. The National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC) has even requested to double its Php 19-billion budget this 2022. With the task force’s questionable track record of bogus rural community projects and fake surrenderees, this budget will surely go into the machinery needed to ensure a Duterte seat in the elections.

Immediately after activists chant the last of the three ills of society— “Burukrata kapitalismo, ibagsak!— it is followed right after by “Duterte mismo, ibagsak!”

Truly, the narrowest target remains Duterte and his moribund regime. We cannot keep on pretending that we are living in a democratic regime as long as key positions are in the hands of his cohorts. The task remains to form the broadest united front against this dictatorial regime, even if it means forming tactical alliances with oppositional figures from the ruling elite. To isolate the tyrant is too gargantuan a task to be purist in our approach.

The elections are still a numbers game for the elite, but we shall make use of the upcoming elections and the latent anger of the people to further raise their political consciousness. We shall use this period to further arouse, organize, and mobilize huge sectors of the population in the anti-fascist struggle, and beyond that, toward genuine democracy.

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