Two days ago, the Speak­er of the Philip­pine Par­lia­ment, Mar­tin Ro­mualdez - cousin to Pres­i­dent Fer­di­nand Mar­cos Jr - re­signed amid a cor­rup­tion scan­dal in­volv­ing al­leged kick­backs from flood con­trol con­tracts. In­ves­ti­ga­tions re­vealed wide­spread ir­reg­u­lar­i­ties: ghost in­fra­struc­ture, de­fec­tive pub­lic works, and padded con­tracts.

For Fil­ipinos, this scan­dal is just the lat­est chap­ter in a long, frus­trat­ing sto­ry of bro­ken promis­es.

When Fer­di­nand Mar­cos Sr was oust­ed in 1986 af­ter the Peo­ple Pow­er Rev­o­lu­tion, the Philip­pines be­came a glob­al sym­bol of de­mo­c­ra­t­ic re­new­al. The dic­ta­tor­ship was over­thrown peace­ful­ly. A new con­sti­tu­tion was writ­ten. De­mo­c­ra­t­ic in­sti­tu­tions were re­stored.

But near­ly four decades lat­er, the son of that same dic­ta­tor is in pow­er, and cor­rup­tion re­mains deeply en­trenched.

So, what went wrong — and why should Trinidad and To­ba­go pay at­ten­tion?

Af­ter Mar­cos Sr’s ex­ile, Pres­i­dent Cora­zon Aquino - the wid­ow of as­sas­si­nat­ed op­po­si­tion leader Ni­noy Aquino -took of­fice amid high pub­lic ex­pec­ta­tions. She stood for democ­ra­cy and re­form.

She learned the hard way that de­spite good in­ten­tions, her gov­ern­ment, like many that fol­lowed, strug­gled to dis­man­tle an en­trenched sys­tem built on pa­tron­age, weak in­sti­tu­tions, and elite in­ter­ests.

Each new pres­i­dent — from Ramos and Estra­da to Ar­royo, Aquino III, and Duterte — rode waves of hope but ul­ti­mate­ly left in dis­il­lu­sion­ment. Cam­paigns promised re­form; ad­min­is­tra­tions de­liv­ered scan­dal.

Fer­di­nand Mar­cos Jr cap­i­talised on that dis­il­lu­sion­ment in 2022. With a savvy mix of so­cial me­dia out­reach, his­tor­i­cal re­vi­sion­ism, and vot­er fa­tigue with the po­lit­i­cal elite, he won the pres­i­den­cy.

But now, with his own cousin re­sign­ing amid cor­rup­tion al­le­ga­tions, the cy­cle of hope and be­tray­al con­tin­ues. Pub­lic protests are once again planned in Mani­la. The head­lines are fa­mil­iar — and they should feel fa­mil­iar to us here in Trinidad and To­ba­go.

We, too, face a cy­cle of cor­rup­tion al­le­ga­tions, po­lit­i­cal blame games, and vot­er frus­tra­tion. Ghost gangs, in­flat­ed con­tracts, nepo­tism in gov­ern­ment awards, un­ex­plained rentals, and sub­stan­dard pub­lic works are now al­most rou­tine.

The sim­i­lar­i­ties be­tween our two na­tions are strik­ing. In both cas­es:

• ↓Cor­rup­tion is sys­temic, not in­ci­den­tal.

• ↓Over­sight in­sti­tu­tions are thought to be politi­cised or un­der-re­sourced.

• ↓Whistle­blow­ers lack ad­e­quate pro­tec­tion.

• ↓Vot­ers os­cil­late be­tween hope and res­ig­na­tion.

And in both coun­tries, po­lit­i­cal par­ty net­works re­main pow­er­ful, while cit­i­zens are of­ten left won­der­ing whether mean­ing­ful change is even pos­si­ble.

But it is - if we fo­cus less on per­son­al­i­ties and more on sys­tems.

What can T&T learn from the Philip­pine ex­pe­ri­ence?

1. Fix the in­sti­tu­tions, not just the pol­i­tics. Agen­cies like the In­tegri­ty Com­mis­sion, Pro­cure­ment Reg­u­la­tor, Au­di­tor Gen­er­al, and Civ­il Ser­vice Com­mis­sion must be strength­ened, in­su­lat­ed from po­lit­i­cal in­ter­fer­ence, and giv­en re­al au­thor­i­ty.

2. Make gov­ern­ment spend­ing trans­par­ent. Digi­tise pro­cure­ment. Pub­li­cise con­tracts. Let cit­i­zens track projects and bud­gets in re­al time. Cor­rup­tion thrives in the shad­ows.

3. Pro­tect whistle­blow­ers.

En­act strong le­gal frame­works that pro­tect those who ex­pose wrong­do­ing.

4. Break the cul­ture of im­puni­ty. In­ves­ti­ga­tions must lead to pros­e­cu­tions. Jus­tice de­layed is not just de­nied - it sig­nals that the pow­er­ful are un­touch­able.

5. En­gage cit­i­zens be­yond elec­tions. Vot­ing every five years is not enough. Civ­il so­ci­ety, me­dia, and every­day cit­i­zens must stay vig­i­lant, ask ques­tions, and de­mand an­swers year-round.

6. Chal­lenge po­lit­i­cal trib­al­ism. Vot­ers must stop de­fend­ing wrong­do­ing just be­cause it comes from “their” side. Cor­rup­tion is wrong - re­gard­less of which par­ty is in pow­er.

The re­al dan­ger isn’t cor­rup­tion alone - it’s the nor­mal­i­sa­tion of cor­rup­tion. When peo­ple be­gin to ac­cept it as “just how the sys­tem works,” re­form be­comes im­pos­si­ble, and the cor­rupt grow bold­er.

The Philip­pines shows us what hap­pens when in­sti­tu­tions are erod­ed and pub­lic out­rage fails to trans­late in­to struc­tur­al re­form: the same prob­lems re­turn, of­ten with the same names and faces.

Trinidad and To­ba­go still has a chance to break that cy­cle. But on­ly if we stop pre­tend­ing that elec­tions alone will save us.

Re­al change re­quires more than new lead­ers - it de­mands bet­ter sys­tems, stronger over­sight, and a cit­i­zen­ry that re­fus­es to set­tle for less.

We are at a cross­roads. Will we keep re­peat­ing the same mis­takes, or fi­nal­ly be able to chart a dif­fer­ent fu­ture?