‘Rulers are rebels, partners with thieves’

What precipitated the ouster of Francis “Chiz” Escudero as head of the Senate was the growing public outrage over the flood control project scandal in which he was implicated through a campaign contributor who owned one of the contractor firms that President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. tagged as cornering P100 billion worth of projects over the past three years.

A political observer noted that the President made the right move in exposing the anomaly, putting himself above the fray.

The majority of senators withdrew their support for Escudero to let off steam from the situation, which has become tenuous and perilous, particularly considering what has been transpiring in Indonesia, where unrest was also sparked by discontent over members of their legislature.

Escudero has become a heavy boulder hanging around the neck of the Senate after the methodical questioning by Akbayan Rep. Chel Diokno extracted a confession from Lawrence Lubiano, president of Centerways Construction and Development, about his P30-million donation to Escudero’s 2022 senatorial campaign, representing about 20 percent, the biggest, of a total of P146.5 million declared cash contributions.

Centerways secured P5.16 billion in flood control contracts from 2021 to 2024, with many projects concentrated in Sorsogon, Escudero’s home province.

The domestic situation is feared to be edging towards an explosive level, particularly after the Church jumped on the bandwagon.

In a pastoral letter last Sunday, Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines president Cardinal Pablo David propounded some questions: “How credible are the inquiries when the very institutions conducting them are themselves implicated? Who inserted these projects into the national budget as pork, often at the expense of education, health, and social programs?”

The letter stated that for years, the anatomy of corruption in public works has been public knowledge. Shame must be inclusive: legislators, district engineers, government auditors, and political patrons share in the plunder, it added.

Equally guilty are private contractors and financiers who collude in this racket. The Church leader quoted prophet Isaiah: “Your rulers are rebels, partners with thieves; they all love bribes and run after gifts.” (Isaiah 1:23)

The letter that indicated the position of the Church added, “True justice, however, demands more than punishment. It also calls for restitution: that stolen wealth be returned to the public coffers from which it was taken.”

According to the archbishop, “many of those implicated will not be impoverished by such reparation, yet the nation remains poor if the funds are not restored.”

“Retribution in this sense is not personal vengeance but the rightful act of giving back what was stolen, so that the people may finally benefit from resources meant for their welfare,” Cardinal David stated.

A cleansing of the Executive and Legislative branches became imperative, as the abuses had become too blatant to escape public anger.

Amid the precarious political situation that may still intensify as the public is reminded of the surrender of former President Rodrigo Duterte when the 23 September presentation of evidence at the International Criminal Court comes around.

What must be presented is that the indignation becomes too big to contain, dragging the whole government into the drain along with the circling mess from the flood debacle.