*Dr. Rodolfo John Ortiz Teope, PhD, EdD, DM
I was only six years old when leadership first touched my life.
In a small Grade 1 classroom—with its wooden chairs, dusty erasers, and a chalkboard that towered like a wall of authority—I heard my name called as the newly elected Class President. I didn’t fully understand the weight of that title then. All I knew was that beside my name on the board were the words President, Secretary, Sergeant-at-Arms, and Treasurer. Together, we were entrusted with the responsibility to keep our class in order whenever our teacher stepped outside.
One afternoon,
our teacher left for a meeting. And like many Grade 1 rooms in the Philippines,
the moment she closed the door, chaos erupted.
A classmate began running around, shouting, banging chairs, disturbing everyone. As Class President, it was my job to keep the peace. I called him to order. The sergeant-at-arms wrote his name on the board. Still, he ignored us. He believed the absence of the teacher gave him absolute freedom to misbehave.
When our teacher returned and saw the messy board filled with names, she didn’t scold the noisy child first.
She looked at
me.
Directly.
Uncomfortably.
“Rodolfo Ortiz Teope! Why did you allow this? You are the President. Where was the discipline? Where was the leadership?”
I was stunned. I was just a child. But now, through the lens of age and experience, I understand why she looked at me that way.
Leadership is
not only about what you do.
Leadership is about what you tolerate.
And as I witness the unfolding tragedy of the flood control scandal today—a scandal of staggering magnitude and heartbreaking consequences—I realize that the same childhood lesson echoes in the very foundations of our political system.
Just like that
unruly classmate, the corrupt officials who stole billions in flood control
funds are guilty. But they are not the only ones at fault.
The deeper
betrayal lies with the political parties—the supposed class officers of our
democracy—that refused to discipline them.
The Flood Control Scandal: Not Just Corruption, but a National Betrayal
I have spent years studying governance, teaching public safety professionals, advising government leaders, and analyzing political behavior. But the flood control scandal is one of the most painful national wounds I’ve ever seen.
This was not
ordinary corruption.
It was engineered plunder, executed with bureaucratic precision and protected by political complicity.
Billions were siphoned through manipulated budget insertions, ghost projects, inflated contracts, and coordinated influence networks. This was not one rogue official. This was a political ecosystem of greed.
And many of its
architects?
Senators.
Congressmen.
Influential political actors.
Some already
face cases.
Some await
indictment.
Some will inevitably be imprisoned.
But the more painful truth is this:
They stole
because they were allowed to steal.
Just like the noisy classmate who misbehaved because the “officers” refused to act, these legislators plundered because their political parties chose silence over discipline.
In political
science, Sartori (1976) notes that party discipline is the “internal immune
system” of a political structure. When it fails, the body becomes defenseless
against corruption.
That is precisely what happened.
Political parties permitted their members to abuse the system without fear of consequences. They valued numbers over integrity, loyalty over morality, and power over patriotism.
Their silence
built the runway from which corruption took flight.
Corruption as Human Suffering
We often analyze corruption in technical terms—budgets, appropriations, contracts. But corruption in flood control is a tragedy with human faces.
Every diverted
peso is a mother standing on her rooftop, praying the waters stop rising.
Every kickback
is a child wading through waist-deep water just to reach school.
Every manipulated allocation is a father watching his small business drown in brown floodwater.
Hellman, Jones, and Kaufmann (2000) call this state capture: when public institutions serve private greed instead of public good.
But for the Filipino people, it is simply betrayal.
It is betrayal
when a Senator turns flood control into an ATM machine.
It is betrayal
when a Congressman inflates budgets while families lose their homes.
It is betrayal when political parties pretend they don’t see.
Corruption is
not just the theft of money.
It is the theft
of safety, dignity, and hope.
NPC’s Expulsion of Alice Guo: A Rare Moment of Courage
This is why the decision of the National People’s Coalition (NPC) to expel Alice Guo struck me deeply.
For the first time in years, a political party acted like my Grade 1 class officers were supposed to act. They looked at a member whose actions endangered credibility, loyalty, and national security—and said:
“Your name goes
on the board.
You must go.”
In academic terms, Diamond and Gunther (2001) call this defensive institutionalization—a party choosing to preserve its moral identity by expelling those who compromise it.
Most political
parties would have protected her.
NPC did not.
And in doing so, NPC revealed how glaringly cowardly other parties have been.
Parties that
protect Senators and Representatives involved in the flood control racket are
not political institutions.
They are shelters for syndicates.
NPC’s decision was a reminder that political parties can act with dignity—if they want to.
The Reckoning Will Not Spare the Parties
The time of
reckoning is near.
And it will be
swift.
Names will be
indicted.
Senators will
be arrested.
Congressmen
will be jailed.
Contractors
will confess.
Networks will
collapse.
But the
reckoning will not end with individuals.
It will fall
upon the political parties that enabled them.
As Schedler (1999) notes, democracies do not collapse under the weight of corruption alone—they collapse when institutions refuse to self-correct.
Political parties in the Philippines have refused to self-correct for far too long.
NPC took one
brave step.
Others must
follow—or be remembered as accomplices.
Purge or Perish: The Hard Truth
Just as my Grade 1 teacher held me accountable for the noise I allowed, the Filipino people will hold political parties accountable for the corruption they tolerated.
A political party that protects a corrupt Senator is not a political institution—it is a cartel.
A party that shelters a corrupt Congressman is not a force for democracy—it is a criminal syndicate with a logo.
When a
political party’s discipline dies, corruption does not merely reign.
It becomes
culture.
It becomes
generational.
It becomes the flood that destroys our future.
And unless
political parties choose courage over convenience—
unless they
write the names on the board and expel the corrupt—
the next floods
that drown us will not be caused by typhoons,
but by our own
political cowardice.
References
- Diamond, L., & Gunther, R. (2001). Political parties and democracy. Johns Hopkins University Press.
- Hellman, J. S., Jones, G., & Kaufmann, D. (2000). Seize the state, seize the day: State capture, corruption, and influence in transition. World Bank Policy Research Working Paper No. 2444.
- Johnston, M. (2005). Syndromes of corruption: Wealth, power, and democracy. Cambridge University Press.
- Sartori, G. (1976). Parties and party systems: A framework for analysis. Cambridge University Press.
- Schedler, A. (1999). Conceptualizing accountability. In A. Schedler, L. Diamond, & M. F. Plattner (Eds.), The self-restraining state: Power and accountability in new democracies (pp. 13–28). Lynne Rienner Publishers.
