RIVERMAN’S VISTA | Fighting Impunity in Mindanao, Visayas, and Luzon

QUEZON CITY (MindaNews / 28 Nov) — In the ongoing corruption crisis, the worst the Philippines has seen, the legal system’s initial response to public outrage is as always dramatic. We see the rapid creation of special panels, the filing of headline-grabbing complaints, and the promise of full investigations. These gestures aim to reassure the public that accountability is underway. Their credibility depends entirely on whether courts, prosecutors, and investigative bodies are genuinely independent. 

As we development and social change lawyers often note, law can easily divert us into pathways that drain resources without producing meaningful outcomes. I fear this is happening in our focus on prosecution at the expense of working for fundamental reforms.

The rare conviction of Imelda Marcos, still pending appeal decades later, highlights the depth of high-level impunity. There is a saying that when fooled once, shame on those who fooled us, but when fooled twice, shame on us. If we allow ourselves to be fooled a third or fourth time, we become a country of fools. Yet this is exactly the cycle we tolerate. The public is repeatedly invited to hope, only to witness the same predictable failures.

How impunity survives 

This pattern has long defined our national experience. From unresolved human rights atrocities under the Marcos dictatorship to the persistent failure to hold masterminds in Mindanao accountable, the cycle remains unbroken. 

The Maguindanao massacre of 2009, the single deadliest attack on journalists in history, stands as a stark reminder. Some perpetrators were convicted, yet the powerful clans and enablers behind the killings remain largely untouched. Earlier atrocities such as the Manili mosque massacre of 1971, the Palimbang or Malisbong massacre of 1974, and later incidents like the Al Barka and Tipo Tipo killings expose the same entrenched impunity.

In all these cases, state forces, paramilitaries, or influential political families were implicated. Investigations stalled, witnesses were intimidated, and prosecutions collapsed. 

Local dynasties and national security actors in Mindanao refined political interference into a routine practice. As a result, accountability becomes selective or disappears entirely. For the people of Mindanao, injustice has become a recurring and painful reality.

The same systemic failure is evident in the devastating floods in the Visayas. Communities in Samar, Leyte, Iloilo, and Negros saw widespread destruction linked to poorly planned infrastructure, corruption in public works, and weakened ecosystems. 

Families who endured repeated disasters understand that these events are consequences of governance failures. Flood control projects were underfunded or mismanaged. Public officials promised safety but delivered only vulnerability.

Where the State fails us

This dysfunction also defines our corruption cases. The Marcos Sr ill-gotten wealth litigation involved more than nine hundred cases after 1986, yet only a few reached final judgment. Billions of pesos in suspected illegally acquired assets remain trapped in litigation or entirely lost. 

The Arroyo era produced scandals such as the fertilizer fund scam, the NBN ZTE deal, and the misuse of PCSO intelligence funds, all of which followed the same pattern. Charges weakened, evidence collapsed, and dismissals prevailed.

Even the Napoles pork barrel cases produced only a handful of convictions. Many implicated legislators slipped quietly out of public view. Cases languish for years in the Ombudsman or the Sandiganbayan without meaningful progress. Delay functions as its own form of acquittal. Justice is promised repeatedly but rarely delivered.

We should not pretend that our legal and judicial system will respond more effectively today. Even accelerated legal reforms may produce only limited change. 

What we truly need are fundamental political reforms that confront the roots of impunity and state capture. Without such reforms, the most well-intentioned legal changes will be overwhelmed by the same power structures that have defeated justice for generations. The problem is political at its core.

The Marcos and Duterte families illustrate why these political reforms are essential. 

The Marcos family continues to distort national governance and promote historical revisionism. The Duterte family has entrenched militarized governance and clan dominance that has harmed the entire country, especially Mindanao. 

These dynasties deepen regional inequalities and enable environments where corruption, violence, and abuse flourish. Their dominance shows how unchecked political families can weaken democratic institutions.

Building Real Change

To break this pattern, we need real political change. This includes ending monopoly control over local governments, enforcing strict campaign finance rules, strengthening ideology based political parties, and insulating oversight institutions from executive or clan pressure. 

We should also consider creating a national transition people’s council to guide institutional reforms. This council must not be Manila-centric and should include representatives from all regions and sectors, including Mindanao, the Lumad and other indigenous peoples, and the Moro communities. 

Ironically, these political reforms may be easier to achieve than prosecuting the top officials who have enabled corruption, from congressmen to senators to the vice president and president.

There is reason to hope, however, because the youth of this country are no longer passive. Young people in Luzon, the Visayas, and Mindanao are more informed, more connected, and more courageous than any generation before them. Many have experienced disasters, displacement, or inequality firsthand and refuse to accept a broken political order as their future. Their activism is grounded in community and rooted in every region of the Philippines. If any force is capable of ending impunity and rebuilding our democracy, it is this rising generation. 

[MindaViews is the opinion section of MindaNews. Dean Antonio Gabriel La Viña is Associate Director of Manila Observatory where he heads the Klima Center. He is also a professor of law, philosophy, politics and governance in several universities. He has been a human rights lawyer for 35 years and a member of the Free Legal Assistance Group. He is currently the managing partner of La Viña Zarate and Associates, a development and social change progressive law firm that provides legal assistance to the youth student sector, Lumad and other Indigenous Peoples, desaparecidos and their families, political detainees, communities affected by climate and environmental justice, etc.
Dean Tony is a member of the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague and Chair of the Jurisprudence and Legal Philosophy Department of the Philippine Judicial Academy. He is founding president of the Movement Against Disinformation and the founding chairs of the Mindanao Climate Justice Resource Facility and the Mindanao Center for Scholarships, Sports, and Spirituality (MCS³)]