September 2, 2025
MANILA – The country was gripped by corruption controversies in August, with scandals piling up faster than they could be resolved, data suggests.
An analysis on Google Trends presented by INQUIRER Metrics data scientist Dr. Rogelio Alicor Panao showed that corruption scandals took the fore in searches made in Google and YouTube last August.
One particular controversy that stood out was “impeachment,” which saw search interest spike on August 6 where it peaked at 87 out of 100.
The interest spike occurred the same day the Senate decided to archive the impeachment case against Vice President Sara Duterte, following a Supreme Court ruling that declared the impeachment complaint against her unconstitutional.
But the issue almost immediately ceded the spotlight when attention shifted to reports involving flood control projects on August 11—the same day President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. revealed the Top 15 contractors who received the majority of flood control projects from the government.
READ: Marcos bares 15 contractors bag P100B flood control deals: ‘Disturbing’
Searches involving flood control then peaked at 74 on August 28—with interest for impeachment dropping at only 5 the same day—then surging to a 100 by September 1.
While Panao noted that the interest for impeachment did not vanish, “flood control gained salience as a scandal with more tangible local consequences.”
“The concept of issue attention cycles suggests that public focus rises and falls as new controversies demand space in the collective agenda,” said Panao.
“Rather than competition, this reflects a reallocation of attention: impeachment lingered in the background, while flood control moved to the fore,” he added.
And though such scandals being brought to the public’s attention may signal a good thing in the spirit of exposure, Panao noted how the data suggests that scandals accumulate faster than they are resolved.
Such fast accumulation, he said, may result in dispersing outrage “across too many fronts.”
“If August is a sign, Philippine democracy may suffer not from apathy but from fatigue—haunted by corruption’s many restless ghosts, yet settling none to rest,” he noted.