MALACAÑANG on Wednesday belied claims that President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has lost interest in pursuing the perpetrators of a flood control scam.
Presidential Communications Office Undersecretary Claire Castro said the president remains zealous in bringing to justice those behind the misuse of billions of pesos worth of public funds.
”The president has not lost interest in holding anyone accountable,” Castro said in Filipino during a briefing.
Marcos, she noted, is reviewing a report submitted by the Independent Commission for Infrastructure while focusing on ways to bolster the economy and improve the lives of Filipinos.
“As of now, we have not been given an update on whether the president has completed reading the report, as we understand it is quite lengthy. As the president said, he will concentrate on the economy for the sake of our fellow citizens and not focus solely on politics,” Castro said.
Meanwhile, Castro noted that the Philippines’ six-spot drop in the Corruption Perceptions Index 2025 was “expected” given Marcos’ revelation of massive corruption.
”That’s expected because it was the president who opened the issue about corruption. So, if the president opens corruption, there will be an investigation, and this was what the president wanted — for corruption to be investigated,” she said.
Castro said the “dirt of the past” had been brought to light, and the government is exerting all efforts to cleanse the government of misdeeds.
”And with this cleaning, they will see the change so that they can see that corruption in the government is being prevented and eliminated,” she added.
The Philippines fell to 120th from 114th out of 180 countries monitored by Transparency International. The index measures how corrupt a country’s public sector is perceived to be by experts and businesspeople.
In its report, Transparency International said the country’s corruption scandals “extend beyond immediate financial losses.” Compared to other countries in Southeast Asia, the Philippines ranks below Singapore (3), Malaysia (54), Brunei (63), Timor-Leste (73), Vietnam (81), Laos (109), Indonesia (109) and Thailand (116). Only Cambodia (163) and military junta-led Myanmar (169) have worse rankings.
