Part 1 of a Series of 3

When a presidency is weakened, the easiest move is distraction. The harder move is reform. And the rarest move is reform that cuts directly into the sinews of the political class itself. In the middle of cascading corruption scandals, collapsing trust, and a political family war erupting in public, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. delivered a list of four priority bills that, on paper, look nothing short of revolutionary. They strike at dynasties, at political impunity, at party-list distortion, and at the opacity of public finance. These are not mild administrative tweaks. They are constitutional stress tests. And if passed and enforced in their intended spirit, they threaten the very architecture of Philippine patronage politics, including the one that sustains this administration.

The Anti-Dynasty Bill is the most explosive of the four. Every President for thirty-seven years has gestured toward anti-dynasty reform, but none have truly pushed it. To include it now, when the Marcos brand is under siege, when dynasties dominate both chambers of Congress, when political clans control most LGUs, is either an act of genuine courage or a calculated attempt at deflection. The bill would cut directly into the electoral base of many of the very legislators whose votes are needed to pass it. It would wound not just the Dutertes, Revillas, Estradas, Angaras, Villars, and Remullas; it would tear into the logic of the entire political elite, including the President’s own family network. If Malacañang is serious about this bill, then Marcos is picking a fight with the bloodlines that keep Philippine politics running. If he is not serious, then the bill is symbolic theater meant to buy time. Either way, the political class is suddenly forced to confront the possibility that the ground beneath them may shift.

The second reform, the Independent People’s Commission Act, is the closest the Philippines has ever come to a special counsel model, an investigative body insulated from presidential and congressional interference, with the power to pursue corruption cases across administrations, across agencies, and across dynasties. In an era where DPWH kickbacks, flood-control rackets, and budget insertions have become national scandals, creating such a commission is both a necessity and a political gamble. If real independence is granted, the Commission could subpoena the powerful, prosecute the untouchable, and dismantle entrenched networks of theft. But independence cuts both ways. If Marcos backs this bill, he risks empowering an institution that may one day come for his allies or himself. The test of sincerity lies not in proposing the bill, but in allowing it to investigate without fear, without favor, and without the invisible leash that has strangled every anti-corruption body before it.

The Party-List System Reform Act is the quiet reform that will cause the loudest screams. Designed originally to give marginalized groups a parliamentary voice, the party-list system has long been hijacked by billionaires, dynasties, corporations, and political clans pretending to be poor, vulnerable, or socially excluded. Real reform would purge bogus party-lists, impose strict membership rules, demand sectoral authenticity, and remove political dynasties from the sectoral space entirely. It would redraw the map of congressional power. And here, the contradiction emerges sharply: the administration proposing the bill is built on alliances with the same dynasties that abuse the system. If passed, the reform would weaken many of Marcos’s own allies. If opposed, it exposes the hypocrisy of claiming to uplift the marginalized while preserving elite capture. The country will see very clearly who stands with the people and who stands with the impostors.

Finally, the CADENA Act, Citizens Access and Disclosure of Expenditures for National Accountability, is perhaps the most transformative of all. CADENA demands automatic, real-time public disclosure of all government spending, procurement, fund transfers, infrastructure allocations, amendments, and budget insertions. It is the transparency law that should have existed decades ago. If CADENA were already in place, the flood-control scandals, the budget padding, the 25 percent kickback allegations, and the billion-peso insertions linked to senior officials would not have survived the first audit cycle. CADENA threatens the darkness in which corruption thrives. It would expose line-item theft, padded contracts, ghost projects, congressional pork, executive pork, and the quiet collusion between agencies and legislators that has cost Filipinos hundreds of billions every year. For a President currently drowning in allegations about insertions and kickbacks, proposing CADENA is either an act of strategic self-immolation or an attempt to reclaim moral ground before it disappears entirely.

These four priority bills, i.e., anti-dynasty, special anti-corruption commission, party-list reform, and mandatory transparency, represent the most aggressive institutional reform package any President has offered in three decades. But they also carry political consequences that may be fatal. They threaten dynasties. They threaten legislators. They threaten the President’s coalition. They threaten the system itself. And that is precisely why their fate will reveal the truth.

If Marcos pushes these bills with full force, he risks losing Congress. If he softens or abandons them, he confirms that they were never meant to pass. If he allows Congress to water them down into meaningless versions, he becomes an accomplice to their burial. The political class is betting he will blink. But crises change incentives. His presidency is wounded, his credibility battered, his alliances fracturing, and his authority slipping. A leader on the edge sometimes finds unexpected courage, not out of virtue, but necessity.

The country now faces a rare crossroads. If these bills become law in their strongest form, the Philippines will take a historic leap toward political modernization. If they die, the message is just as historic: the system will protect itself, no matter how deep the rot, no matter how loud the public rage.

In the coming weeks, we will see whether Marcos wants to save his presidency through reform or merely survive it through performance. One path transforms the nation. The other preserves the decay.

The four bills are the clearest test yet of which kind of leader he intends to be.