No end to corruption unless we end oligarchic rule

We at Partido Sosyalista stand with everyone appalled and outraged by the scale of depravity and debauchery we are seeing in government today. We call on everyone to join us and many other groups in Luneta on September 21 to demand an end to corruption.

For us in Partido Sosyalista, corruption is not merely the contingent result of ravenous individuals being unrestrained by imperfect laws or leaders. We see it instead as a necessary structural feature of the kind of society we live in—a social order built on domination and exploitation. 

Where there is a small minority parasitically living off wealth created by the labor of the vast majority, and where this tiny elite requires a government tasked to perpetuate this exploitative order—a government that they can control and that belongs to them—there will always be embezzlement, malversation, and plunder.

Kickbacks, bribes, tongpats: billionaires, big landowners, and others in the ruling class are happy to look away—or at times even partake of the fruits of corruption themselves—for as long as government, their government, does its job of locking the oppressed and dispossessed in their chains. Corruption is the grease that keeps the wheels of capitalism grinding; it is the price elites levy on the people for the state to perpetuate existing social hierarchies. That it keeps happening is not a sign that the system is broken—it is a sign that the system is working exactly as intended.

This is why—from Janet Napoles in 2015 to Sarah Discaya in 2025, from Roberto Benedicto five decades ago to Zaldy Co today—corruption never seems to go away: not because there has always been and there will always be evil, corrupt people in our country, but because the system that breeds corruption remains entrenched, more depraved and more debauched than ever. 

For us in Partido Sosyalista, then, improving our laws or putting “good” people in power will not suffice to end corruption. What we need first of all is for regular people to take power into their own hands and for their own interests, a self-governance that is truly our own—not a government for billionaires, like the government we have today. Only then could we—as working people—build the institutions with both the drive and the autonomy needed to once and for all eliminate corruption in government.

But this also means one thing: that we can no longer have Marcos as our President. Marcos himself has wallowed in the fruits of large-scale plunder. He does not have a shred of the moral ascendancy needed to clean up the government. In addition, he also remains the billionaires’ President, tasked to reinforce this exploitative order that engenders unending corruption, like all Presidents before him. 

Neither can we have Sara Duterte replace Marcos: Not only is she also tainted with corruption, she too is beholden to oligarch patrons and she too is no less committed to the maintenance of the existing order. 

A government of the liberal opposition, whether that be the Yellows, the Pinks, or a multitude of many other factions, would seem preferable. But the record is clear: the Priority Development Assistance Fund scam or the Pork Barrel scam happened under the watch of the Liberal Party coalition under President Noyoy Aquino. Liberals, reformists, and proponents of “good governance” also cannot end corruption because they too support oligarchic rule. While we will march alongside those from the working class under the auspices of the liberals and reformists, we will not be complicit in restoring the liberal oligarchs into power.

While we build our power from below, we members of the proletariat orof other oppressed groups must push for immediate measures to bring to justice all those who have stolen from funds accumulated out of our sweat and tears. This could include establishing our own independent commissions or tribunals, demanding full disclosure of elected officials’ wealth, or other forms of transgressive actions to hold plunderers accountable.

But ultimately, what we need if we are to finally end corruption is to replace the existing order with another—one that rests on cooperation rather than exploitation, on solidarity rather than domination. But we can only succeed here if all of us among the oppressed—workers, peasants, women, LGBTQIA+, etc.—gather, assert our independence from the billionaires, and rise up together to abolish the present state of things. Our collective rage and hopes can light the fire with which we can build a new world together.