MANILA, Sept. 3 — A Malaysian columnist’s recent reflection on political decay in Southeast Asia has cast a sharp light on the Philippines’ entrenched system of dynastic rule, where plunder is treated less as a crime than as a family business model. Writing in The Star on August 27, journalist Philip Golingai recalled a conversation at a Persian restaurant in Manila with a former Cabinet secretary who served under President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo.
The ex-official, familiar with Malaysian politics, offered a grim verdict: “Malaysia’s politics is starting to resemble our politics.” The remark landed on the same day three former Malaysian prime ministers—Datuk Seri Najib Razak, Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin, and Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob—appeared in the Kuala Lumpur court complex for separate trials and asset declaration proceedings. That juxtaposition, Golingai noted, marks a historic milestone for Malaysia.
Strategically, the contrast is stark. The Philippines saw President Ferdinand Marcos overthrown in February 1986 after decades of massive state plundering, human rights abuses, and fraudulent elections, fleeing to Hawaii. Under Philippine law, systemic looting is classified as non-bailable plunder when public officers amass at least 50 million pesos (about RM3.2 million, or roughly US$1 million).
Yet enforcement remains selective. The House of Representatives impeached sitting Vice-President Sara Duterte earlier in 2026, sending her case to the Senate, where conviction requires 16 of 24 votes—but she commands a solid bloc of eight senators, a mathematical blocking minority.
The broader stakes are visible in the Senate chamber itself. Senator Jinggoy Estrada, previously detained over a multi-billion-peso pork barrel scam before beating plunder charges, is back in jail facing a fresh non-bailable plunder case involving infrastructure kickbacks. Senator Loren Legarda has taken medical and personal leave in Paris while facing a preliminary Ombudsman investigation alongside her son, Congressman Leandro Leviste, over a controversial multi-billion-peso solar power franchise.
Other senators under scrutiny over flood-control anomalies include Senators Emmanuel Joel Jose Villanueva, Francis Joseph “Chiz” Escudero, Mark Aguilar Villar, Camille Aguilar Villar, and Christopher Lawrence “Bong” Tesoro Go. Golingai, a journalist of three decades in the Philippines, observes that top Filipino politicians appear wealthier than their Malaysian counterparts, with provincial warlords ruling via “guns, goons, and gold” and elite families displaying bulletproof SUVs and sprawling compounds.
Money is concentrated in the top 1% of elite families; across a population of 117.7 million in 82 provinces, power is held by roughly 180 to 250 dominant political clans, known locally as angkan or political dynasties. The succession patterns are telling.
Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. is the current president; Diosdado Macapagal’s daughter Gloria served; Corazon Aquino’s son Benigno “Noynoy” ruled; Rodrigo Duterte’s daughter Sara is vice-president. Golingai notes Malaysia is more egalitarian, though exceptions exist in the Philippines—Manny Pacquiao rose from extreme poverty to senator, and Joseph Estrada used a pro-poor cinematic persona to become president. What this signals for the region is a widening accountability gap.
As Malaysia’s courts process its former leaders, the Philippines’ political class appears insulated by family networks and senatorial arithmetic. The coming Senate trial of Sara Duterte will test whether that insulation holds—or whether the Philippines is finally ready to break its own cycle.
