*Dr. Rodolfo John Ortiz Teope, PhD, EdD, DM
After the May 2022 elections, I did not rush to celebrate. I paused. I watched. I listened—not just to speeches delivered under bright lights, but to the quieter choices made away from the podium. Over time, a realization settled in, slowly but firmly: President Ferdinand Bongbong Marcos Jr. was not governing according to the ideological banner of the party that signed his Certificate of Nomination and Acceptance. Federalism, often associated with that political vehicle, was never the heartbeat of his presidency.
From the very beginning, his compass pointed elsewhere.
He spoke first of national development—plain, practical, almost unromantic. Then came Bagong Pilipinas, not as a rigid doctrine but as a direction, a promise still being shaped by reality. And now, as the country confronts scandals long buried and corruption long tolerated, that direction has sharpened into something unmistakable. What we are witnessing is not ideological drift, but the consolidation of a governing philosophy grounded in consequence.
As I see it, the real advocacy of this presidency is not federalism. It is TAG—Transparency, Accountability, and Good Governance.
I say this not as a partisan admirer, but as an educator, a former local official, and someone who has spent years teaching governance, public safety, and institutional integrity. I have seen reforms announced with thunder only to collapse under the weight of corruption. I have seen unity campaigns dissolve into transactional politics. I have seen beautiful narratives fail because they were unwilling to confront uncomfortable truths.
What feels different now—what unsettles allies and critics alike—is the visible insistence on accountability. We are no longer seeing corruption merely “investigated,” quietly “resolved,” or administratively swept aside. We are seeing officials named, cases filed, and consequences imposed. This is governance that understands a painful truth: credibility is restored not by rhetoric, but by sanctions.
Pushing for TAGGED governance will never be a popularity contest, and the President surely knows this. Transparency threatens those who survive in secrecy. Accountability frightens those who built careers on evasion. Good governance disrupts entire ecosystems of opportunism. It is therefore inevitable that a presidency anchored on TAGGED will be unpopular—not with ordinary Filipinos who suffer from corruption—but with opportunist politicians, complicit businessmen, and even foreign stakeholders who have grown accustomed to enriching themselves by utilizing, influencing, or outright controlling parts of government. For them, reform is not progress; it is loss. Every audit is a danger. Every prosecution is a warning. Every rule enforced is a door closed to easy profit.
And yet, this is precisely why TAGGED matters.
No president who insists on consequences will ever be fully embraced by those who benefit from disorder. No government that enforces the law evenly will be applauded by those who thrive on exemptions. Unpopularity among the corrupt is not a failure of leadership—it is evidence of it. History has always been unkind to reformers in their own time, but generous in judgment later. What weakens administrations is not resistance from vested interests, but surrender to them.
Because without TAG, Bagong Pilipinas is just branding.
Without transparency, development funds become pipelines for theft. Without accountability, laws become optional. Without good governance, unity turns into coercion, peace becomes silence, and justice becomes selective. You cannot build sustainable prosperity on rotten foundations. You cannot preach national renewal while tolerating a system that rewards corruption and punishes integrity.
This is why TAG matters. And this is why it must be expanded, enforced, and lived. Bagong Pilipinas must be TAGGED.
T—Transparency.
The courage of government to open its books, its processes, and its decisions to public scrutiny. Power that hides decays; power that is seen can be corrected.
A—Accountability.
The willingness to answer for every peso, every signature, and every decision—without exemptions for rank, connection, or loyalty. Public office is not a shield; it is a burden of trust.
G—Good Governance.
Governance by discipline and competence, not by convenience or charisma. Institutions that function even when no cameras are watching.
But TAG alone is not enough. The country has learned this through decades of disappointment. That is why the nation must be TAGGED.
G—Genuine Reform.
Not cosmetic reshuffles or rhetorical cleansing, but structural corrections that dismantle corrupt systems and prevent their return.
E—Enforcement of the Law.
The end of selective justice. Laws must no longer bend for the powerful and snap for the poor. Justice delayed, negotiated, or selectively applied is not justice—it is betrayal.
D—Deterrence of Corruption.
A system where wrongdoing is no longer profitable, protected, or survivable—because consequences are certain, swift, and visible. When corruption no longer pays, integrity finally has room to grow.
This, to me, is the real advocacy of the present administration. Not federalism as an abstract restructuring of power, but TAGGED governance as a moral restructuring of the state. Not ideology, but discipline. Not slogans, but consequences.
As an educator, I teach that values are learned not through lectures but through consistency. As a political analyst, I know that systems only change when incentives change. And as a Filipino, I know this much: no unity, no peace, no justice, and no prosperity can ever be genuine as long as corruption is allowed to survive.
No amount of good narratives can move a nation forward if bad behavior goes unpunished.
If Bagong Pilipinas is to be real—if it is to endure beyond speeches and administrations—it must be TAGGED, clearly and without fear. Only then can national development move from promise to practice, from rhetoric to reality, and from hope to habit.
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*About the author:
