Dear Sen. Hontiveros:

Floodwaters don’t choose where to flow. But public funds always seem to find their way to friends.

Chiz Escudero, your Senate President, admitted receiving a P30-million campaign fund from Lawrence Lubiano, a “longtime friend” and government contractor.

Shortly thereafter, Lubiano’s company, Centerways, with a capital of only P45 million, won billions in flood-control contracts, mostly in Sorsogon.

Is it coincidence or a direct, audacious link between campaign funds and public contracts?

The Senate Blue Ribbon is sitting on a gold mine of evidence. Yet your peers remain silent about Chiz. Are senators willing to shield their own leader while the law is mocked?

Will the senators all pretend not to see the smoke because they fear the fire might spread?

If so, is it because Lubiano is just a node in a larger network feeding multiple lawmakers indirectly, or are your peers all tangled in favors?

What favors do they owe? They know things are shady, but they don’t know how deep it goes, so it’s best to freeze rather than risk discovering it.

The Omnibus Election Code is clear: campaign contributions from government contractors are illegal, punishable by fines, disqualification, and imprisonment. Chiz’s admission alone is a violation.

Every time Escudero presides over the Senate, he flaunts that law. Enforcement depends on senators with courage.

You have proven you are one of them.

You have long positioned yourself as the Senate’s conscience. Unlike the hollow, performative outrage of Sen. Joel Villanueva, your voice carries weight because you have acted on principle before. No one can easily dismiss you.

Your pointed questions, demands for investigation, and direct calls to action turn your credibility into a megaphone for institutional pressure.

The contractor gave Escudero P30 million, then won billions. That’s the shape of a deal, not luck.

Sorsogon is small. Everyone knows who gets the contracts, who moves the cement, who digs the rivers. The former governor could control DPWH relationships and infrastructure priorities.

Lubiano didn’t gamble; he had Escudero’s political umbrella and immediately leveraged it.

Flood control may be the new pork barrel, and Lubiano may represent a small part of a larger, shadowy network that consolidates contracts, influence, and political favors nationwide.

Sen. Hontiveros, you have a chance to stop impunity in its tracks.

Demand Escudero declare all contributions publicly. Call for an immediate, independent Senate investigation. Question him under oath.

Every day of silence hands corrupt networks permission to loot, manipulate, and repeat decade after decade.

Act, and your questions and investigation could unravel the very scaffolding that allows contractors to buy influence and make future corruption harder to hide.