Senator Ping Lacson’s resignation as chair of the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee is more than just another headline in this flood control scandal. It’s a gut punch to what little credibility the Senate had left. If there was still anyone who believed that this chamber was serious about conducting a thorough, no-holds-barred investigation into the corruption mess, that illusion just got washed away.

This isn’t an isolated setback. It’s the latest in a string of red flags that have turned what should have been a crusade for accountability into a game of pass the blame.

Start with the absurdity of Senators Jinggoy Estrada and Joel Villanueva — both tagged by witnesses as possible recipients of kickbacks — sitting in the very inquiry that’s supposed to determine their guilt. In any halfway decent institution, that would be called a conflict of interest. In our Senate, it’s apparently just another Tuesday.

Then there was former Blue Ribbon chair Rodante Marcoleta, who treated his post like a loyalty test for the Dutertes. His acrobatics to avoid even mentioning corruption during the Duterte years were so painfully obvious that when he was finally shown the door, people practically applauded.

His removal was supposed to signal a reset. Instead, we got more of the same: rumors that other senators were “unhappy” with where the investigation was going, mostly because the floodlights were starting to shine, too, close to home.

Taken together, this is not a good look. The Senate increasingly seems less interested in finding out what really happened and more concerned about how to keep their own names out of the mess.

The dramatic statements about “protecting the institution” and “defending the Senate’s honor” might have worked before, but not anymore. Filipinos can smell the BS from miles away, and no amount of moral posturing will cover the stench.

Equally galling are the attempts to drag down those who still seem to care. We’ve seen clumsy efforts to smear Ping Lacson himself, along with Senator Risa Hontiveros, one of the few who actually voted “No” to the graft-riddled budget for 2025, with the tired old line that “everybody’s corrupt anyway.”

It’s a cheap trick, meant to muddy the waters, spread the blame, and give the real culprits a chance to slip out the back door. But the public isn’t buying it. Not this time.

Whether the Senate can recover from this nosedive in credibility is anyone’s guess. What’s certain is that this flood control investigation has exposed not just the defects in our infrastructure, but the shortcomings of our institutions.

When even the supposed watchdogs are more interested in covering for their “friends” and “colleagues,” it’s hard to imagine even the barest semblance of accountability coming out of that building.

So let’s make this simple. Remember the names. Remember who pursued their own interests, who obstructed, who played innocent, all while abusing the public’s trust to pocket our taxes.

Remember who they are. And when the time comes, flush them out of the offices and posts they have so freely and shamefully abused for their own selfish interests, and make damn sure they never crawl their way out of the toilet again.