Obfuscation time

Obfuscation time | Daily Tribune

The trading of barbs between the Senate and the House of Representatives is making the job of the Independent Commission for Infrastructure (ICI) a lot easier as more beans are spilled.

Sen. Francis Escudero, in a privilege speech last Monday, hurled several accusations at “the name that cannot be mentioned,” Martin Romualdez, but he failed to address the public demand for his accountability.

The P30 million campaign contribution he received in 2022 from his friend, Lawrence Lubiano, has become the basis of an investigation into Escudero’s involvement in the flood control scandal.

Lubiano is the president of Centerways Construction and Development Inc., which was allegedly awarded billions of pesos in government flood control projects, and was one of the contractors named by President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. as having cornered large infrastructure projects.

The former Senate chief claimed the allegations against him were part of a script Romualdez had designed to destroy the legislative chamber.

Escudero deduced the script since, except for Ako Bicol Partylist Rep. Zaldy Co, no other member of the House was under probe in the so-called “Floodgate” scandal.

Lubiano’s campaign donation, however, was only one of several excesses connected to Escudero when he held the top post at the Senate.

As Senate president, he and Co convened a secretive “smaller bicam” to finalize the insertions in the bicameral conference committee report.

Escudero was caught on CCTV visiting the House to meet with bicam staff and ensure the P142.7 billion in Department of Public Works and Highways projects, including P9.1 billion for Sorsogon, his home province, and P12.08 billion for Bulacan, Sen. Joel Villanueva’s turf.

In the national budget, flood control received P17 billion despite red flags such as duplicate “phases,” while social services and economic programs were cut by 33.4 percent and 29.2 percent, respectively.

The realignments included priority projects funded by foreign multilateral institutions, which business groups said had caused a dent in the country’s image among the international community.

Former finance secretary and Phinma Corp. chairperson and CEO Ramon “Boy Blue” del Rosario Jr. blamed the realignments on the bicameral conference committee, where “our esteemed legislators transferred huge amounts of funds away from the high-priority projects of our national government, underfunding them and redirecting resources toward public works projects in their districts which are poorly studied, poorly identified and largely centered around flood control.”

Since the local counterpart funds for the foreign Official Development Assistance projects are allocated under unprogrammed appropriations, the Department of Finance was required to secure the funding elsewhere.

It was in 2024 that the bicam inserted a provision allowing the DoF to sweep excess funds from government-owned and -controlled corporations to cover the priority projects relegated to the UA.

In the 2025 budget process, blanks appeared that were mysteriously filled before the General Appropriations Bill was submitted to the president.

The common denominator of both maneuvers is that they occurred in the bicam and were aimed at allocating space in the budget for the pork barrel of legislators.

Escudero, instead of deflecting blame to the House, should come clean over the budget manipulation allegations.