Recent months have seen the exposure of systemic corruption and blatant theft of public funds by those in power. From anomalous infrastructure projects and pork barrel funds to “unprogrammed appropriation” and “allocables” in the national budget, the role of bureaucrat capitalism has become clear in the people’s intolerable suffering and poverty.

The existing system allows bureaucrat capitalists not only to use their position to amass wealth. They also craft laws and implement policies that serve the interests of their favored big bourgeois compradors and foreign capitalists. They further accumulate wealth through this process.

In the US-Marcos regime’s more than three years, it amended and implemented at least 15 laws for the relief and benefit of the bourgeois compradors and foreign capitalists. These include laws that reduce corporate taxes, allow companies to own 100% of essential industries such as telecommunications, airports, and renewable energy, and permit the acquisition and use of Philippine land for up to 99 years. The regime also expedited and simplified the processing of foreign investors’ applications in the country.

Manny Villar, Enrique Razon, and Ramon Ang are among the big bourgeois compradors who amassed immense wealth under the US-Marcos regime. These three are also behind the country’s largest political parties. Razon controls the National Unity Party, Villar leads the Nacionalista Party, and Ramon Ang heads the Nationalist People’s Coalition. They control about 42% of senators, 27% of congressmen, and 33% of governors.

Privatization as part of systemic corruption

The privatization of public services, infrastructure, and enterprises serves as one of the major sources of wealth for the comprador big bourgeoisie. One of the ways to secure projects is through an Unsolicited Proposal (UPS) under the Public-Private Partnership Code of the Philippines (PPP, 2023). The law further allows the private sector to select and manage projects it aims to control.

Under PPP, the government provides a “guarantee” using public funds to ensure that the project proceeds. The government also shoulders the losses if the project fails.

Ramon Ang’s San Miguel Corporation (SMC) greatly benefited from PPP. SMC obtained several of its biggest projects through UPS. These include the New Manila International Airport (NMIA), MRT 7, Cavite-Batangas Expressway, and Pangasinan Link Expressway. Colluding with the Marcos regime allowed Ang to acquire for SMC the contract to operate and manage the country’s main airport and the massive Navotas Bay Reclamation Project. The project includes constructing a business district and an expressway leading to NMIA. The company also obtained a ten-year tax holiday for the NMIA construction.

Despite destruction to the environment and the people’s livelihood of its infrastructure projects, SMC has yet to be held accountable for violations of laws and human rights. While amassing wealth using public funds, it enjoys the protection of bureaucrat capitalists, who also benefit from its businesses. It freely uses the police, military, legislature, and courts to protect its interests. This collusion highlights the deep corruption within the bureaucrat capitalist system.

Through privatization, foreign capitalists and local bourgeois compradors dictate which parts of the economy receive funding, how development proceeds, and for whose benefit. As the US-Marcos regime continues to push for the privatization of the remaining public services, corporations, and infrastructure, the people sink deeper into the quagmire of poverty while the comprador bourgeoisie and bureaucrat capitalists further increase their wealth and greed.