More than half a year has passed since the regime’s president Ferdinand Marcos Jr’s dramatic State of the Nation Address to the Philippine Congress and to the world that he intended to stop the massive corruption in the government. He projected on screen his list of the biggest anomalous projects and contractors and daringly opened a website “Isumbong mo sa Presidente” where anyone can post information and complaints regarding irregularitiesin the funding and construction in the nation’s flood control and other projects.

The website was immediately flooded with data from the public. Both mainstream and social media, and more effectively the investigative journalists, took the cudgels and the flood currents of protest marches and demonstrations intensified. The contention between the main political factions, the Marcoses and the Dutertes, had risen to existential levels. Committees in both houses of Congress held increasingly damaging investigations into activities of erring top politicians, highly placed bureaucrats, contractors and go-betweens. Political awareness spread to the man on the street.

Many suspected high officials and VIPs fled abroad or just disappeared to escape responsibility. One undersecretary “committed suicide”. Rattled, Marcos Jr created the Independent Commission for Infrastructure, fired department Secretaries, Undersecretaries and other officials, reshuffled his Cabinet. He loudly promised weeks before the holidays that big fish will be spending Christmas in jail. Now, middle of January, only small fish, a few of them, are in jail and charged in court.  

Worst, Marcos allowed the inclusion in the 2026 budget of large funds, pork barrel style, that can be used by Senators and Congressmen to win elections and discourage them to initiate any impeachment proceedings against him.

So, the unabashed snowball of corruption in the regime rolls on and it’s getting bigger.

But rolling a snowball bursts when it reaches the bottom of the hill.

As the crescendo of protests and calls for the downfall of both Marcos Jr and vice president Sara Duterte rises, signs of unrest in the military begin to appear. Despite the AFP leadership’s repeated assertions that it firmly “abides (sic) by the Constitution and the chain of command”, cracks begin to appear between sections loyal to one or the other political faction.

An Army officer, Col. Audie Mongao, the current Director of the Training Development Centre under the AFP Taining Command, posted on his Facebook account his withdrawal of support of Marcos Jr’s AFP. He added that Marcos Jr had already lost “moral ascendency” to lead the armed forces as commander-in-chief. The post went viral. 

Earlier, Retired Air Force Major General Romeo Poquis, one of the founders of United People’s Initiative (UPI), an organization of retired military officers allied with the Duterte family, was arrested on charges of inciting to rebellion. He led an UPI rally near the national headquarters of the National Police and urged active generals to “withdraw” their support for Marcos Jr. over corruption issues.