Gutter-level insult

Philosopher George Santayana’s words are ringing loudly amid the corruption scandal engulfing the nation: “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”

The country’s leaders have ignored the lessons of history, and once again the Philippines is drawing global attention for unparalleled corruption.

The flood control scandal has exposed not only the greed of government officials, including those who unfortunately were voted into power. Efforts to reform the system fail because the investigators cover up for each other since, in one way or another, those who have been in position for some time, except for a few, are involved in the kickback rackets.

Still, those who are perceived to be clean usually choose to shield their peers in the guise of protecting the institution.

The perversion of the budget to raise hundreds of billions of pesos each year for the pork barrel has reached the point where the country has again become the object of global focus, since the corruption involves development funds which are the counterpart financing for Official Development Assistance (ODA) loans.

These allocations should be sacred, but in the past three years, according to those involved in the process, the manipulation of the budget involved the funds for big-ticket projects.

European Union Ambassador Massimo Santoro has warned that governance issues are a component of European loans, which is a gentle reminder to the crooks in government to keep their hands off the ODA funds.

The ODA is a highly concessional loan, which is practically a donation to the country for its development goals. However, the government needs to raise counterpart funds to unlock it, to show its commitment.

In turn, the failure to draw down the financing entails penalties that are larger than the interest savings, which is a feature of its generous terms.

South Korea recently withdrew an ODA program that could have funded bridges and roads throughout the country due to corruption concerns.

The Department of Economy, Planning, and Development (DEPDev) acknowledged that ODA partners are keenly watching developments in the flood control controversy that has implicated members of Congress.

An official of the former National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) said the ODA partners will be looking “for details on how exactly we address it.”

The top sources of ODA funds include Japan, the Asian Development Bank, the World Bank, the United States and South Korea.

Davao City Rep. Sid Ungab pounded on the defunding and underfunding of ODA counterpart financing in the 2024 and 2025 national budgets which were relegated to unprogrammed allocations (UA), which have conditional sources of financing, while in place of the ODA projects the small “but profitable” projects of legislators were given guaranteed appropriation.

In 2024, the ODA funds were removed from the budget, while in the 2025 budget 32 percent was left.

Ungab said that since the ODA financing is a contract, the government incurs penalties when a program is delayed or not implemented at all.

Thus, former Public Works and Highways Secretary Manuel Bonoan repeatedly insulted the intelligence of Filipinos when he claimed there was no unified master plan for the flood control projects.

The foreign-assisted infrastructure plan would have provided the start of a network of projects that would be a permanent solution to the perennial flooding problem.

These well-designed plans were all bumped off to make way for pork. How low can members of Congress go?