Why isn’t anybody angry at Budget Secretary Amenah Pangandaman? Martin Romualdez is up there, nailed to the cross; contractors were roasted alive, turning on the spit. But unless Amenah signs, nothing leaves the treasury.

She’s the cashier at the vault, the last stop before the pesos leave the building. If the money’s fake, if the project’s a ghost, if some “finished” line items get to be resurrected, it’s her rubber stamp that made it real.

While others are dragged into hearings, she’s on FB, chewing gabi. Have you seen it?

She takes a bite, slowly, daintily. A little carefree munch-munch like a hamster at Cartimar. Then she gives her “Am I cute?” glance at the camera. Cute? Cute has never cost us this much.

She’s got a brand, have you seen this? “Amenah for the People.” Not “Budget Secretary,” never “Steward of Your Trillions.”

You’d think it’s a new soap on GMA. You ever notice it’s always “for the people” right before the money disappears?

The 2026 National Expenditure Program, have you seen it? Places like Marikina. Slope protection for a little creek. Done and celebrated in 2023. Finished. Everybody said, “Great, move on.” Maybe after a ribbon-cutting with the mayor. And now? Back in the budget. Resurrected.

Maybe, maybe, let’s be nice, OK? We’re being ungrateful. Amenah said they lost sleep over the budget. Real group effort. Sat on it for six months, the President. His Cabinet. How could they sleep at night?

Maybe Amenah is not the villain here. Maybe she’s sitting in DBM with no engineers, nor inspectors, but piles of paper.

The process begins with the budget law, followed by the Special Allotment Release Order (SARO), then the Notice of Cash Allocation (NCA), and finally, the actual disbursement of the allocation. SARO and NCA are DBM’s domain.

And the DPWH, very lazy, very sneaky. Maybe they thought Amenah and her President were weak. So they slipped in the same projects again and again. Boom! Copy-paste. Maybe Amenah honestly saw it, but she didn’t have the technical people to say, “This dam looks familiar.”

Maybe it’s not incompetence; perchance it’s trust. Trusting the DPWH like they’re honest little angels.

And maybe the politicians leaned on DPWH. “Keep that line alive.” “Keep the faucet open.” It happens. We all know it happens. Amenah could be a victim of the system. A very cute victim, by the way.

But Amenah still signs the checks. The faucet is still in her hand. So if billions kept pouring out possibly in the past, the public has every right to ask: “Why didn’t you close the tap?”

Tell us, Amenah. Are you saying the President didn’t know? Or you didn’t tell him? Which is it? Because either way, somebody’s lying.

You say you’re frustrated. “Frustrated” doesn’t stop the money. Frustrated doesn’t cancel ghost projects. Frustrated just signs checks.

Could you have stopped it? Yes or no? Or were you just following orders? Because if you can’t say no to DPWH, to Congress, then what’s the point of having a DBM? Just rename it “Cashier for Corruption.”

Was Amenah protecting the treasury, or the incumbents? Because you can’t tell us nobody looks at these phantom billions and thinks “campaign.” They call it flood control. We all know it’s vote control. And the President either knows, or he doesn’t want to know. Both are killing this country.

Billions of pesos don’t vanish because a hundred million Filipinos blinked away. They vanish because one person signs yes. Find the signature, and you’ve found the beating heart of this scandal. And it’s yours, Amenah. Yours.