![[Business Innovation] Upheaval of Corruption in the Marketplace](/en/content/images/size/w1280/format/webp/20250918141303_disruptive-innovation-in-fighting.jpeg)
[Positive Enterprise] Uprooting Bribery and Nepotism
In the heart of Southeast Asia, the Philippines grapples with a widespread issue of corruption that offers a fast route to wealth and power, and has become normalized across society. This pervasive problem has cost the country dearly, with over P1.9 trillion spent on flood control over the past 15 years, but billions lost to corruption.
However, a new approach is emerging, inspired by Clayton Christensen's theory of disruptive innovation. Instead of focusing on stopping corruption, the question being asked is, "What could make corruption obsolete?"
Business schools could potentially become disruption engines by building transparency infrastructure that works better than corruption. One such initiative involves students partnering with local government units (LGUs) for procurement monitoring as their capstone projects. This collaboration would provide free analytical capacity and academic credibility to LGUs, aiming to rebuild the possibility of authentic bayanihan, modern collective action that honours interconnection, instead of exploiting it.
Patrick Adriel H. Aure, PhD (Patch), the Founding Director of the PHINMA-DLSU Center for Business and Society and Associate Professor at the Department of Management and Organization, Ramon V. del Rosario College of Business, De La Salle University, is spearheading this innovative approach. You can reach him at [email protected].
Businesses joining the partnership could gain access to talent pipelines, as they would be verified to be corruption-free. This initiative could also provide students with education that matters while performing genuine public service.
The Trillion Peso March, a movement aimed at addressing corruption and flood control issues in the Philippines, matters because it breaks the stupor. But after the march, building the infrastructure of disruption is necessary.
Estonia has shown that radical transparency can be a competitive advantage. Citizens can start a company in 18 minutes and see exactly who accesses their data. Ukraine's e-procurement system ProZorro saved $6 billion through transparency and daily citizen monitoring.
Institutions that could build a transparency infrastructure in the Philippines to eliminate corruption include international development agencies such as the GIZ (Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit), which has experience in supporting institutional strengthening and governance in developing countries, as well as Swiss development cooperation programs that focus on combating corruption and financial crime through institutional support.
Corruption requires secrecy, excludes most people, and builds relationships on fear rather than trust. By contrast, transparency fosters accountability, inclusivity, and trust. It's time to remember the legacy question: how we will be remembered – for the systems we built that allowed everyone to prosper or for the wealth we extracted.
Kodak lost to phones not because phones were better, but because phones made film unnecessary. In this context, corruption is compared to an incumbent product. By building a better, more transparent alternative, we can make corruption obsolete. Let's rebuild the Philippines, one transparent transaction at a time.
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