Not enough
If we really intend to do justice to the Filipino people who are the victims of the band of crooks and criminals at the House of ‘Representathieves,’ all those involved must resign their seats.
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If we really intend to do justice to the Filipino people who are the victims of the band of crooks and criminals at the House of ‘Representathieves,’ all those involved must resign their seats.
The flood control project anomalies, where details continue to be revealed every second of the day unmasks the personalities involved who stole billions. A societal crisis of national scale. The looting by corrupt officials of scarce government funds, the big chunk of which was generated from huge state debts. The impunity of the rascals to commit the crime, as I’ve said, is unprecedented in our country’s history.
We are pleased, to a certain extent, that my call for DPWH Secretary Manuel Bonoan to resign came about even late in the night. He should have done it at the start of the fire. But you guys know he is “makapal ang mukha” (thick faced), numb, as if injected with anesthesia.
Next to leave his post was a Leyteño from the dictatorship gang or family or clique. A few days ago, under so much pressure from the public, the father of corruption in the Batasan complex resigned. While he thinks that vacating the speakership may help his vicious dream of taking over in 2028, the fact is Rep. Martin Romualdez is damaged goods.
Romualdez’s adjutant, former Committee on Appropriations chair Ako Bikol Partylist Rep. Zaldy Co, and then Senate President Chiz Escudero had been pinpointed as the culprits behind the anomalous massive fund insertions in the 2025 General Appropriations Act (GAA).
Davao Rep. Isidro Ungab helped expose the anomaly but stopped short of identifying who was behind it, although he believed Romualdez was responsible.
Antipolo City Rep. Ronaldo Puno, as reported by DAILY TRIBUNE, said the insertions were a “real painstaking work to do. But it was the two [who] actually finalized those things,” pointing to Co and Escudero.
The dirty work of insertion was to be carried out by the so-called “small committee” which included Romualdez and former Senator Grace Poe of the Senate Finance Committee during the 19th Congress. Instead of the bicam, composed of selected members of the House and the Senate, Puno said, the small committee consolidated the independent amendments to the 2025 GAA.
Puno said the four-member small committee held several meetings, where Escudero and Co were the only ones present. “When the committee went into their meetings, this is where the insertions were put in,” he said.
Under the 2025 GAA, Puno said the Department of Public Works and Highways budget was allocated to around 20,000 infrastructure projects.
Escudero and Co were solely responsible for the budget manipulation, if we are to believe Puno. Co, who ran to the US before the anomaly came out in the media, appeared to have been the author of the P13.8 billion in pork, part of the P100-billion flood control budget which was distributed to the adjutants of Romualdez like Reps. David Suarez and Aurelio Gonzalez, among at least 153 solons who partook of the bonanza added to the 2025 GAA.
Under the situation, which to me involves the security and stability of the state, the consequential resignation of Romualdez is not enough to resolve the shameless and scandalous pocketing of the people’s money by the so-called representatives and keepers of the national purse.
If we really intend to do justice to the Filipino people who are, indeed, the victims of the band of crooks, thieves and criminals at the House of “Representathieves,” everyone of those involved, mentioned in news reports and initial findings and exposés, one made by Mayor Benjie Magalong, must resign their seats. Not just their Batasan posts, like the deputy speakers or whatever power or title given by Romualdez then at the HoR.
If we don’t demand their resignation and if these thieves who brought dishonor and shame to the country and people remain in power, our noble united effort to clean the government, get rid of these rascals and criminals, and serve the people will turn out to be nothing but a useless exercise for the Motherland. Abolish the entire HoR for their inutility. There ain’t no other way for salvation.
