A much-needed declogging

A much-needed declogging | Daily Tribune

At long last, there may be some reason to hope the flood control scandal will actually get the serious investigation it deserves.

The appointments of former SC Justice Andy Reyes, PNoy’s former DPWH secretary Babes Singson, and SGV managing partner Rosanna Fajardo to the Independent Commission on Infrastructure have given the effort a badly needed shot of credibility.

And with the Senate leadership reshuffle that sent both Chiz Escudero and Rodante Marcoleta packing, the stage may finally be set for a broader, more impartial look into where billions of pesos in “flood control” money really went.

Because let’s be honest. While Marcoleta was running the Blue Ribbon committee, the inquiry was a master class in selective outrage. His focus was exclusively on anomalies after 2022, carefully avoiding any mention of the six long years when Rodrigo Duterte sat in Malacañang and, not coincidentally, billions of pesos in questionable projects were approved.

The supposed star witnesses, the Discaya spouses, dutifully enumerated only projects under the current administration, even though they admitted to being contractors since 2016. And, of course, not a single senator was fingered. Investigation? Puh-leez.

But that farce has mercifully ended. In the House inquiry that followed, a different picture emerged. DPWH engineer Brice Hernandez implicated Senators Jinggoy Estrada and Joel Villanueva, names the Marcoleta probe took great pains not to mention.

A graph was presented showing how the revenues of the Discaya companies ballooned during the Duterte years, from P99 million in 2016 to P1.3 billion in 2017, ending with a staggering P20.5 billion in 2022. These figures only underscored what everyone already suspected — the rot didn’t start in 2022, it was thriving long before that.

Then there was, of course, the jaw dropper. A reminder that one of the single biggest recipients of public funds for “flood control” was none other than Representative Pulong Duterte, who bagged an eye-bulging FIFTY-ONE BILLION pesos in the last three years of his father’s term. If that doesn’t demand a closer look, nothing does.

Slowly but surely, despite the desperate spinning of pro-Duterte trolls and the attempted coverups by their allies in Congress, the names and the numbers are surfacing. It is becoming impossible to pretend that this scandal can be pinned only on the current administration or on a few faceless contractors. Too much money changed hands, and too many familiar figures were in positions of power when it happened.

That’s why the change in the Senate leadership and the creation of the independent commission matter so much. For the first time, there is at least a chance the investigation will be more than the usual palabas. Reyes, Singson and Fajardo bring with them reputations for competence and independence. If they do their jobs well, the truth that so many want to remain buried might finally see daylight.

The credibility of the government now hinges on what happens next. The billions that vanished in bogus flood control projects need to be traced. The people who pocketed them need to be named. And the ones responsible — no matter how lofty their titles or illustrious their surnames, need to be held accountable.

Anything less, and we’ll know it was just another rerun of that same old familiar show entitled “Impunity.”