Flooded by Corruption, Filipinos Use Online Lifestyle Checks as Political Pushback

On August 28, Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. ordered lifestyle checks for all public officers amid a rising scandal over ghost flood management tasks, which contain circumstances the place public cash was allotted with out correct use. Still, the infrastructure or service by no means materialised or was grossly incomplete. The transfer began with officers of the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) dealing with the nationwide infrastructure portfolio. The Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) shortly adopted, saying lifestyle checks on flood control contractors themselves.

These directives concurred with the Senate and House of Representatives’ investigation into the 9,855 flood control projects worth ₱545 billion between July 2022 and May 2025, which disclosed that as a lot as 20 per cent of the funds since mid-2022 had been allotted to simply 15 contractors, lots of which are linked to political families. In Bulacan alone, over ₱5.9 billion value of tasks have been awarded to a contractor that’s believed to have listed a number of ghost tasks.

Citizen-driven way of life checks on-line.

Public consideration has shifted considerably towards high-profile contractors concerned in flood tasks. A former mayoral candidate and her husband, homeowners of enormous building companies, have come underneath hearth after media options showcased their 28-40 luxury vehicles. These situations have additionally since given rise to a “nepo baby backlash” on social media, the place influencers and daughters of varied main contractors drew widespread flak for his or her luxurious content material.

The condemnations shortly led to on-line “lifestyle checks,” a apply the place residents scrutinise the conspicuous consumption of politicians, contractors, and their households. A brand new thread on well-liked messaging board web site Reddit.com known as r/lifestylecheckPH (28k members) and Facebook pages like DPWH Corruption Expose have been arrange. Here, photos of European holidays, luxurious watches, and designer luggage, amongst different shows of wealth, are recirculated with captions linking personalities to unfinished flood tasks and incumbent politicians, additional eliciting on-line dialogue. 

The flooding skilled this monsoon season sharpened the anger expressed on social media. In a rustic the place state establishments are sometimes distrusted, digital platforms steadily develop into another enviornment for political participation. This is compounded by the truth that Filipinos are among the many world’s most active social media users, coupled with a tradition of on-line humour and satire, collectively making way of life checks straightforward to create and share. 

Dive into the logic of scrutiny.

Sociologically, what way of life checks do is to re-politicise the elite’s on a regular basis spectacle of extravagance. These imputations might not essentially maintain up in court docket as proof. Still, they’re highly effective as a result of they resonate with a broadly shared understanding of how political and elite seize within the Philippines works in apply.

Lifestyle checks additionally provide residents a way of speedy company. In the quick time period, they expose elite privilege, make corruption seen, and provides atypical folks a instrument to carry energy to account when establishments seem compromised. What would in any other case be a private indulgence has remodeled into political proof, a method for residents to reveal that elite privilege and public struggling are related.

Lifestyle checks echo ideas in Philippine regulation that emphasise modest dwelling amongst public officers. Republic Act 6713, the Code of Conduct and Ethical Standards for Public Officials and Employees, explicitly requires public officers and their households to chorus from lavish existence. Furthermore, Article 25 of the Philippines’ Civil Code discourages extravagance throughout instances of public hardship, even amongst non-public residents. Such authorized guidelines banning the ostentatious show of wealth amid hardship are sharpened by the truth that climate-related struggling amongst Filipinos is straight linked to the flood management tasks that enriched contractors and politicians.

But way of life checks have limitations. As of writing, these checks tend to deal with people, notably the youngsters or spouses of officers, which dangers obscuring the structural methods that permit corruption to persist. And the longer way of life checks persist with out institutional follow-through, the larger the chance they pose of manufacturing unintended results. For occasion, if officers and contractors proceed to thrive regardless of repeated publicity, empowerment can flip into cynicism, which can in flip reinforce the notion that corruption is everlasting and unchangeable.

The authorized framework launched above compounds these limits. Although the Civil Code technically prohibits extravagance, solely state establishments or charitable organisations can provoke circumstances. Ordinary residents lack standing within the Code, which implies that even when proof circulates broadly on-line, there isn’t a simple path from outrage to prosecution. 

Taking on-line sentiments offline

Lifestyle checks haven’t but grown into large-scale protest mobilisations as of 9 September, although they’ve sparked localised actions. On September 4, for instance, flood-survivor teams and environmental activists threw mud and spray-painted words like “magnanakaw” (“thief”) on the gates of a building headquarters in Pasig. Pasig City Mayor Vico Sotto and the Malacañang collectively urged calm. 

Several components might assist clarify why sentiments at the moment stay on-line and will present that political alternative buildings might not have aligned but. One could be the stubborn gaps in income and economic status inside Philippine society. Initiating way of life checks is normally related to middle-class residents who dominate on-line areas. Although there are calls for protests in opposition to flood management scams and the ostentatious existence of contractors and politicians, heeding these calls stays a problem for working-class communities dwelling in flood-prone areas, the place the chance prices of protest are excessive, such that leaving one’s job or livelihood to affix demonstrations is a luxurious they can’t afford.

Decades of dynastic extra might have additionally numbed the shock issue, weakening the impression of every new revelation. When residents have witnessed a normalisation of extravagance amongst political households—mansions, motorcades, international journeys, and even a fabled assortment of up to 3,000 pairs of shoes—luxurious ceases to really feel distinctive. It turns into a part of the background noise of politics. In this setting, even when outrage is honest, it could be difficult to realize the sort of shock or rupture that drives sustained protest, the place extravagance is seen as one other predictable function of dynastic politics. 

The very composition and former actions of the federal government limits the areas by which people can have interaction in direct motion. Red-tagging, or the labelling of people as terrorists, is widespread, notably in opposition to those that criticize the federal government. This apply usually results in harassment and fosters a local weather of concern, finally encouraging self-censorship amongst residents.

Institutions meant to channel grievances are additionally usually intertwined with the identical political dynasties underneath scrutiny, with most of the nation’s high officers being themselves “nepo babies” and beneficiaries of entrenched patronage networks. For occasion, former Senate President Francis “Chiz” Escudero discovered himself underneath hearth following revelations that the 7^thof the 15 flood management contractors named by former dictator’s son President Marcos Jr. had contributed ₱30 million to Escudero’s 2022 marketing campaign. Even Senators Jinggoy Estrada and Joel Villanueva, who appeared most outraged over the flood management scandal and are themselves nepo infants in politics, have been later implicated in having been conscious of and benefited from the anomalous flood management tasks.

Implications for democratic accountability

Civil society performs a vital function in bridging the hole between citizen outrage and institutional accountability, as direct recourse to authorized measures is commonly unavailable as a consequence of limitations within the regulation. Organisations already monitoring procurement and marketing campaign finance can deal with way of life checks as leads. Journalists can examine and contextualise circumstances. Meanwhile, universities and NGOs can doc and analyse patterns. Such collaborations matter as a result of neither residents alone nor state establishments alone can undoubtedly precise accountability. State businesses, in flip, are legally mandated to behave however usually don’t achieve this with out stress. 

However, it’s at this ultimate step that the method primarily breaks down as of writing. How the flood management challenge saga unfolds will both expose or obscure the fragility of governance, particularly when corruption proves extra catastrophic than the local weather disasters it claims to handle.

Athena Charanne “Ash” Presto is a doctoral researcher on the School of Sociology, The Australian National University, supported by an Australian Government Research Training Program (AGRTP) scholarship. Her analysis lies on the intersections of political sociology, social coverage, and gender.

This article is printed underneath a Creative Commons License and could also be republished with attribution.