Pantomime of a probe

The public, weary of being exploited by its elected officials, is rising up against a self-serving display of outrage over the flood control scandal that defrauded the government of more than P500 billion in just the past three years.

A criminologist termed it “performative justice,” and it has swept not only the probes in Congress but also the way the Executive branch has operated.

The spotlight was directed at the Senate inquiry that has become less an exercise in accountability than indignation theatrics in the way legislators feign indignation that is all for show since they are the primary suspects.

The legal expert said that by playing prosecutors in prime time, they seek to “erase their fingerprints from the crime scene.”

The outrage is scripted to create a spectacle that seeks to capitalize on the public fury, benefiting those involved. Theatrics meant to distract from the truth that many of them are as enmeshed in the rot as the contractors they pretend to grill, according to an online view.

Others call the practice grandstanding, which is the tendency of lawmakers to exploit hearings not to solve problems but to project moral authority, which is very prevalent.

The Executive is equally culpable, as a commentator criticized Budget Secretary Amenah Pangandaman’s public expression of “irritation” over alleged insertions in the 2026 National Expenditure Program (NEP) while she appeared oblivious to the duplicate projects embedded in the proposal.

The insertions are there because the DBM Secretary allowed them or has glossed over them through negligence, if not complicity.

The unabated disgrace of the yearly budget has established a pattern of systemic abuse of public funds, according to a political pundit.

He asked for an investigation of Pangandaman. “And if found accountable, removed. Expressions of irritation do not absolve one from responsibility when billions of pesos are at stake and the Filipino people are left drowning, literally and figuratively, in floods, hunger, and broken services,” the observer indicated.

A 2018 exchange between House Majority Leader Rolando Andaya Jr. and then Budget Secretary Ben Diokno indicated the possibility of the agency’s head sneaking in items in the yearly budget.

The inserted projects were included in the P75 billion additions by the DBM in the NEP submitted to Congress. Interestingly, the P325-million new projects were also part of the flood control program.

“This recent discovery of a P325-million allocation for new projects in Casiguran for 2019 raises a red flag as evidence already uncovered point to Secretary Diokno’s in-laws as the real beneficiaries of infrastructure projects in Sorsogon,” Andaya said then.

A constant follower of the Senate probe also believes that if the senators were serious, they would have asked more complex questions that would penetrate the layers of patronage and the collusion among politicians, bureaucrats, and unscrupulous contractors.

Questions were designed instead to avoid implicating friends, financiers and, frequently, themselves.

Thus, the congressional probe is a waste of Congress’ time and resources. Instead, the probe must be handled by an independent body and not by the clowns in the legislature.