Malacañang said the Philippines' ranking in the global corruption perceptions Index is expected, given that it came in the wake of the exposed flood control scandal.

"Expected po iyan dahil binuksan po ng Pangulo ang isyu tungkol sa korapsyon (That is expected because the President opened the issue of corruption)," Palace Press Officer and Communications Undersecretary Claire Castro said in a briefing on Wednesday, Feb. 11.

The country ranked 120th out of 182 countries in the Corruption Perceptions Index in 2025. It fell six spots from its 114th place in the previous index.

It is the Philippines' worst ranking since the index began using the 0 (highly corrupt)-100 (very clean) scale in 2012.

Castro stressed that when the President exposed the multi-billion anomalies in the country's flood control projects, there would naturally be investigations.

"So, kung binuksan ng Pangulo ang korapsyon, magkakaroon ng pag-iimbestiga, at ito po ang ninais ng Pangulo – maimbestigahan (So when the President opened up the issue of corruption, there would naturally be investigations, and this is what the President wanted—to have it investigated)," Castro said.

"So, noong nagkaroon ng imbestiga, na-open ang mga natatago noon kaya nililinis po ng Pangulo ang nangyari noong nakaraan. Lahat ng dumi ng nakaraan, nililinis ngayon (When the investigations began, what had previously been hidden was uncovered, which is why the President is now cleaning up what happened in the past. All the dirt from the past is being cleaned up now)," she added.

The Palace official further said that "it is truly expected that the corruption that took place in the past would be exposed."

"At sa paglilinis pong ito, makikita po nila ang pagbabago para mas makita nila na pinipigilan at tinatanggal na ang korapsyon sa pamahalaan (And through this process of cleaning up, they will see the change and clearly see that corruption in the government is being prevented and removed)," Castro said.