Money where your mouth is, not in your pocket

Money where your mouth is, not in your pocket | Daily Tribune

Of late, there’s been a notable high-profile blasting of corruption in government, particularly where it involves politicians profiting from substandard or ghost public projects and lawmakers shrugging off conflicts of interest by taking control of the construction of their own infrastructure projects funded by public money.

This started with President Ferdinand R, Marcos Jr.’s State of the Nation Address (SoNA) last week where he delivered a stinging rebuke of his confreres in public office who gain from inferior or even non-existent flood control projects to Senator Panfilo Lacson’s disclosure on Monday that nearly 70 congressmen in 2022 were said to have been the “contractors” of their own government-funded infrastructure projects.

Likewise, on Monday, the President followed up on his robustly applauded pronouncements against corruption in his 28 July SoNA by declaring in his “BBM Podcast” over GMA 7 that he already had the names of officials alleged to have profited from failed or non-existent projects which caused heavy flooding in communities during the last tropical storms.

Were allies of his among those in the list? If they were, then, he said, “I’m sorry I’m no longer your ally if that’s what you’re doing. I don’t want to be your ally anymore.”

Apparently, what is really incensing to the President is how funds meant for foreign-assisted projects were instead placed by lawmakers under un-programmed appropriations, that is, money — plain and simple — for pocketing by thieves in Congress.

Foreign-assisted projects, the President emphasized, “are funded by (foreign) loans — we are borrowing money for the corrupt to spend.”

The President’s anger over rampant corruption among his colleagues in public service brings to the fore public awareness of the billions of pesos in bicameral committee insertions in the 2025 national budget, including whopping allocations for supposed flood control projects, particularly those allegedly inserted by his political allies including Senate President Francis “Chiz” Escudero.

Clearly, his scathing rebuke — “Mahiya naman kayo” --- in the SoNA, which was heartily applauded by both Escudero and House Speaker Martin Romualdez and members of both houses of Congress, among them his allies who are neck-deep in the budget insertion controversy, was driven by his awareness of such scandalous insertions in the 2025 budget which funded the shabby flood control infrastructure that inundated communities.

Reports alleging that Escudero, using his influence as Senate President, along with other lawmakers, added allocations totaling a humongous P142.7 billion in the proposed P6.3-trillion national budget during the bicam budget talks, have surfaced in the public sphere.

Inserted funds that were allocated to flood control projects totaled P17 billion, a substantial portion of which was directed to Escudero’s close Senate allies, e.g., Senator Joel Villanueva whose home base, Bulacan got the biggest portion at P12.08 billion. Sorsogon, Escudero’s province, received the second biggest share at P9.1 billion.

Indications of irregularities, including suspicions of budget layering, projects sans engineering details or feasibility studies, funding duplication, budget padding, and other red flags, were pointed out in a report by an anti-corruption watchdog.

Senator Vicente Sotto III, who has signified his intention to call for a probe of the final budget, described any insertions to the proposed national budget as “scandalously excessive,” and said that past budgetary amendments made by the Senate, especially for the Department of Public Works and Highways, had never amounted to billions of pesos.

For his part, Lacson, now a member of the Senate minority, said he prefers the creation of an independent entity comprised of civil society organizations and NGOs to audit flood control and other infrastructure projects.

Through the years, he said, corruption in the crafting of the budget has become more creative and has evolved from individual commissions to collusions among contractors and lawmakers.

“The bidding (for projects) is rigged from the start,” pointed out Lacson. “They talk among themselves. They decide who would win this set of projects, and whose turn it would be for succeeding ones.”

He also scoffed at the apparent ridiculousness of Congress calling DPWH officials to a probe on corruption in infrastructure projects. Thieves investigating their thievery?

What gladdens him is the President’s directing the DPWH to submit a list of all the flood control projects under his administration.

On his podcast, “Sa Likod ng SoNA” over radio last Monday, President Marcos vowed he won’t spare anyone responsible for any failed (unfinished or ghost) projects, even if those persons are supposedly his allies.

“For us to fix the problem, we have to know what happened. Someone must be held accountable because of the hardships our fellow Filipinos are going through. They deserve to know who is responsible, and someone has to answer for their suffering,” he said.

Indeed, the President has given his marching orders. May his determination to do right by the people be sustained, and may he follow through till he gets to the bottom of things and do the right thing: put some crooks behind bars. And throw the detention cell keys away.