Corruption used to be the systemic cancer at the Bureau of Internal Revenue. Gone are the days when the dream of accountants infected by the corruption virus was to be a BIR examiner.

The BIR had somehow excised part of the malignant tumor that ailed the agency. Under the present dispensation, the Department of Public Works and Highways reigns supreme in the era of unmitigated graft and corruption. The hides of those involved are as thick as those of rhinoceroses.

Corruption has been institutionalized. It is so pervasive that when the House of Romualdez passed the 2025 budget bill, it contained several pages with blank appropriations. The public was not aware of what took place during the deliberations at the bicameral conference committee made up of members of the House and the Senate. No one gave detailed information as to whether or not the blanks were filled in the final version of the enrolled bill before or after it was submitted to the Office of the President.

What we know is that before it could be signed by President Marcos, Davao Rep. Isidro Ungab filed an information in the Supreme Court questioning what is now known as “The Most Corrupt Budget of all Time.”

It was obvious that copies of the enrolled bill landed on the desk of Congressman Ungab who was once chairman of the House Appropriations Committee. His revelation exposed the grand conspiracy among lawmakers to chop up the budgets of line departments and add the amounts to the DPWH. So uncontrollable was the lawmakers’ avarice that they brazenly reduced the Department of Education’s budget, unmindful of the constitutional mandate that gives the biggest share of the general appropriation to the DepEd.

The DPWH has perfected the art of corruption, becoming the virtual haven of politicians-cum-contractors feasting on billions of pesos of the people’s tax money in pre-arranged bidding or none at all. The Philgeps (Philippine Government Electronic Procurement System) to them is non-existent and irrelevant.

The most notorious clandestine DPWH contracts involved thousands of flood control projects.

President Marcos made it the centerpiece of his 2025 State of the Nation Address. Mother Nature played a major role in exposing the grand thievery of the national treasury. Floods caused the crumbling of substandard flood control projects that each cost billions, prompting the President to call for an investigation since he knew the shenanigans would be exposed anyway.

But Marcos cannot come out clean. This is his watch. Why Public Works Secretary Manuel Bonoan remains ensconced in his post despite his submission of a courtesy resignation amid the magma of graft in his office tells us the President’s admonition, “mahiya naman kayo” (have some shame), was nothing but part of the narrative in the zarzuela.

Corruption and ineptness upstairs are so contagious. In Davao City, for example, a flyover that was being constructed on top of the national highway remains unfinished despite four years in the making. DPWH officials blamed the Davao Light and Power Company and telcos for not relocating their posts and problems with road right-of-way for the construction delay. The City Council of Davao ran out of patience and conducted a probe into the unconscionable delay. I am not confident the probe will prod the DPWH into action. The invitation of the Council merited only the presence of a representative of the DPWH Regional Director.

There is a glimmer of hope, however. The Senate is in the thick of investigating the corruption. It is a Herculean job. The troika of corruption — congressmen, DPWH, and the contractors — has become extremely invincible. But we expect heads to roll — assuming the guilty parties have not yet left the country to live abroad in luxury on the people’s money.