Successive exposures of anomalies and its personnel’s involvement in massive corruption in recent months highlighted the Armed Forces of the Philippines’ (AFP) utter rottenness. These events reveal the AFP serving as henchmen of corrupt bureaucrat-capitalists and accomplices of various ruling factions.

The Duterte faction’s latest move paraded 18 men claiming to be “former Marines” who said they transported billions in kickbacks for Ferdinand Marcos Jr and his allies House Speaker Martin Romualdez and Rep. Zaldy Co.

The Dutertes and their ally ex-President Gloria Arroyo’s camp exploited them to time their “exposure” on the second day of the hearing for confirming charges against Rodrigo Duterte at the International Criminal Court (ICC). They accused ICC investigators of taking bribes to destroy their probe’s credibility. They named senators and congressmen in the Marcos faction who took bribes. They implicated whistleblowers on the Duterte family’s crimes and corruption, like Makabayan congressmen and Leila de Lima, one of the first to push investigations into the Davao killings. Those named firmly denied the accusations against them.

Expectedly, Vice President Sara Duterte fully praised the “Marines.” This is one of her faction’s bid to exploit discord inside the AFP and urge it to “withdraw support” from the Marcos regime.

The AFP leadership swiftly silences those voicing “disloyalty” or lack of fidelity to the president, like one active colonel who called for Marcos to resign. Authorities arrested another retired general who declared opposition to Marcos on sedition charges.

Six days before the ex-soldiers surfaced, Sara Duterte announced her presidential run in 2028. The Dutertes use this as a threat against congressmen and senators to block impeachment complaints against her. Despite this, Congress declared on March 2 that two impeachment complaints are sufficient in content. This will resurface the vice president’s cases of corruption in confidential and intelligence funds and other anomalies.

Mercenary force

Amid the fierce conflict, the Marcos regime pours bribes and favors on the AFP to buy loyalty from its officers and personnel. Marcos raised soldiers’ food allowance from ₱150 to ₱350 in 2025. He slipped this in the 2024 budget during bicameral committee meeting after AFP chief Romeo Brawner complained soldiers’ allowance was “insufficient.” Then-House Speaker Martin Romualdez and then-budget committee chair Zaldy Co personally called Brawner to tell him they inserted funds for his personnel into the budget. No such raise were granted to other government workers despite similar complaints.

Marcos issued in December 2025 another executive order raising basic pay for soldiers and other uniformed personnel by 15% for 2026-2028. He made the announcement after exposés revealed calls inside the AFP for a coup to oust him amid raging public fury over corruption issues.

In the 2026 budget, Marcos allocated ₱50 billion for “modernization” of the AFP drawn from unprogrammed appropriations funds—his own pork barrel. This augments the “modernization” funds he begged from the US in exchange for basing American troops here, trampling on national sovereignty.