Politics, the dwelling place of politicians — from the Palace to the capitols, to the town halls, to the barangay meeting rooms — operates within a constellation of sophists and wordsmiths to effectively send its message. Imagine a dog that extends to the far end of the southern region; if you pinch its tail here in imperial Manila, its loud barking will be heard over the whole Mindanao peninsula.

The vibrant quad media provides the universal viewing screen, a theater, if you will, to inform the governed of developments, goings-on, and generally how the government conducts its business from day to day. In the process, the citizens and its people can see, hear, view, and watch state actors go about their bounden duty of supposedly “good governance,” albeit the occasional chance it commits bureaucratic lapses, which it does miserably.

The grand blunder that may have been committed, culminating in the year-ender signing of the 2025 national budget by the President amidst rabid claims of the mysterious existence of unfilled blanks in the bicameral committee report, though presumably not appearing in the enrolled copy of the General Appropriations Act as the law itself, created an unwanted “butterfly effect.” In short, a signed bicameral report replete with blanks that reared its ugly head fell into the hands of cynics, pundits, and, more so, anti-Marcos critics, who have construed them as reeking of corruption involving billions upon billions of taxpayers’ money.

The top palace officials were uncharacteristically quick to the draw, with the incumbent President accusing former President Rodrigo Duterte of lying, followed by the executive secretary dismissing such allegations as peddling misinformation (i.e., fake news), let alone criminal activity. All quarters in both opposite camps appear to have been equally confused as to the truth or falsehood that blanks were left in this legislated enactment to be later filled in with amounts akin to blank checks.

Be that as it may, the recent Tangere preferential survey shows that 74 percent of Filipino voters raised, as pressing issues their partylist representatives should address, including demanding stronger legislative efforts to combat corruption. Perhaps, the problem with the President is a case of “the right hand not knowing what the left hand is doing,” which is an unfortunate happenstance.

The problem with corruption, the reason it is literally a slippery slope to resolve, is the fact that it has many moving parts that any forensic accountant might find beyond difficult to contain, much less the cognizant Ombudsman. While the Commission on Audit identifies the “red flags” in public spending by any agency of government, it is without teeth and a mere paper tiger.

If one simply imagines the depths of corruption, it can be easily argued that perhaps the country could have reached the final stage in Rostow’s five stages of economic development, which means that we could have progressed “from a primary agrarian economy to a fully developed, consumer-oriented society.” As it stands, we are hardly at the second stage, viz., “preconditions for take-off.”

Lastly, if it is any consolation, just when the good executive secretary framed Du30’s allegation as criminal, we have now heard from the former executive secretary that the same allegations, they being believed to be not fake but true, are an act criminal in nature.

In the end, it is a case of who is talking, kaput!