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KWEBA ni BAROK

The First Lady’s Errand Girl and the Coming Death of the SEC

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Louis ‘Barok’ Biraogo

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Elaine Masukat: A Curriculum Vitae Written in Invisible Ink, Notarized by Nepotism

By Louis “Barok” C. Biraogo — August 27, 2026

IN THE grand theater of Philippine patronage politics, there exists a particularly grim genre of tragedy: the appointment of a “fixer” to a post that demands a “thinker.” It is the political equivalent of casting the family driver as Hamlet. He knows the car, he knows the route to the palace, but he will inevitably stab the wrong person in Act III and confuse a soliloquy with a traffic violation.

And so, with a heavy heart and a sense of impending farce, we turn to the latest whispers echoing through the gilded hallways of Malacañang: the impending appointment of Ms. Elaine T. Masukat to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

“From Fixer to SEC: The Art of Failing Upward”

Letters of Outrage

I have before me two letters, dripping with the passionate outrage of citizens who seem to actually believe the government’s financial regulators should understand finance. One is signed by a “Karen Gulag”—a pseudonym so perfectly Stalinist it deserves a moment of grim applause before we return to the tragedy at hand. The other is signed by a “Marjorie C. Asuncion,” who describes herself as a “Mamamayang May Paninindigan.” Their evidence, meticulously compiled and cross-referenced with public records, paints a portrait not of a commissioner, but of a concierge to the powerful.

Let us be analytical here, because someone has to be.

A Resume of Proximity

Ms. Masukat’s resume reads like a loyalty card punched exclusively at the country club of dynastic convenience. A stint at the MOST Law Firm—an establishment founded by none other than First Lady Liza Araneta Marcos. A long tenure as a fixer and chief of staff for Toby Tiangco, the Navotas political kingpin who apparently never met a bureaucratic sinecure he didn’t like. She is the perfect vessel for the Palace’s most defining trait: proximity over proficiency.

The job description for SEC Commissioner is fairly specific. One is expected to regulate capital markets, enforce securities law, and ensure corporate transparency to protect millions of investors from being fleeced by sharks in cheap suits. The job description for the Secretary of the Presidential Management Staff (PMS), Ms. Masukat’s current gig, is far simpler: do what the Palace says.

The February 2024 PMS Memo

If you want a preview of how Ms. Masukat would run the SEC, look no further than her masterpiece of administrative incompetence: the February 2024 PMS Memo. You remember this one, don’t you? It was the edict that demanded every presidential appointee in the archipelago—from Cabinet secretaries to the guy handing out leaflets in Tawi-Tawi—produce police, National Bureau of Investigation (NBI), and Ombudsman clearances within 30 days. It was a bureaucratic hazing ritual designed to intimidate Duterte-era holdovers.

It was, to borrow the delicate language of Ombudsman Samuel Martires, “highly irregular.”

Martires, clearly annoyed that a glorified staffer was now dictating deadlines to a constitutional office, pointed out the obvious: the Ombudsman had a backlog of over 8,000 clearance requests. Requiring everyone in the government to get one simultaneously wasn’t a policy; it was a denial-of-service attack on the Ombudsman’s database. Masukat’s memo simply died on the vine. It was not withdrawn, not amended, and not enforced. It vanished, much like the possibility of Ms. Masukat admitting a mistake.

This is the mindset the Palace wishes to inject into the SEC: arbitrary, sloppy, and allergic to due process. Can you imagine this woman drafting rules on short-selling? She cannot define a “presidential appointee”; how in God’s name will she define a “security”? She would likely issue a memorandum demanding every publicly listed company submit a “Good Moral Character Certificate” from the Parish Priest by Friday.

This is not merely a bad appointment; it is a deliberate sabotage of regulatory independence.

The SEC and the Maharlika Fund

Imagine hiring a pastry chef to perform open-heart surgery because she once stood next to a surgeon at a cocktail party. The patient dies, but the chef insists she followed protocol. That is the Masukat doctrine. Her protocol is loyalty, her scalpel is a clearance memo, and the patient is the Philippine capital market, already wheezing on the operating table while the Palace insists everything is fine.

The SEC is the gateway to the Maharlika Investment Fund—the President’s multi-billion-peso sovereign wealth vanity project. The fund is currently burning through taxpayer money under the guise of “nation-building.” The only thing standing between the fund and total opacity is, theoretically, the SEC. If you install a First Lady loyalist at the helm, you have effectively ended the audit. You have appointed the fox not just to guard the henhouse, but to draw up the architectural plans for the chicken plucking facility.

The public record, as my investigation confirms, is devoid of any technical expertise from Ms. Masukat. There are no essays on securities law, no track record of corporate governance, no scholarly contributions to capital market theory. There is, however, a very nice, polished record of being “retained.”

Courtesy Resignation and “Recalibration”

Following the administration’s catastrophic loss in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) midterms—a defeat so profound it made the Alliance slate look like a high school debate team wandering into a warzone—Ms. Masukat tendered her “courtesy resignation.” The President, in his infinite wisdom, rejected it. In the Palace’s lexicon, “recalibration” means “keeping the people who lost us the election, because they are nice to the First Lady.”

This is the satirical cherry on top of the poisonous sundae. The administration claims to be meritocratic, yet when faced with a choice between competence and convenience, it consistently reaches for the latter. Ms. Masukat isn’t being considered for the SEC because she will be a good regulator; she’s being considered because she won’t be one. She will be a gatekeeper. A sentry whose only job is to ensure that the financial instruments of the administration’s cronies are never, ever, subjected to genuine scrutiny.

To the President and the Commission on Appointments

To the President: you promised a “recalibration.” Appointing Elaine Masukat isn’t a recalibration; it’s a surrender. It is admitting that despite your massive electoral mandate, you are too weak to say “no” to the whisper network of Navotas politics and the First Lady’s rolodex. It confirms that in your government, the way to promotion is not through the bar, but through the backdoor.

To the Commission on Appointments: if this nomination lands on your desk, do your damn job. Ask her to explain the Martires memo. Ask her to explain how short-selling works. Ask her to explain the Securities Regulation Code (SRC) Rule 68. If she cannot, reject her. Do not let the blind lead the market.

The SEC is not a parking spot for failed political operatives. It is the last line of defense for the Filipino investor. If Elaine Masukat is appointed, we are not just looking at regulatory capture; we are looking at regulatory surrender.

And for the rest of us, in the quiet safety of our caves, we will watch the wealthy pillage the economy once more, with the lights turned off, exactly as the Palace wants it. The gatekeeper will open the door for the thieves, and all we will hear is the faint, polite click of her Most Law Firm heels on the marble floor of Malacañang. — Barok

Key Citations

A. Reports & Studies

B. News Articles

C. Official Websites

Louis ‘Barok‘ C . Biraogo

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