Groups protesting the runaway corruption said the judicial branch must also be investigated. Blame has always been placed on the executive and legislative branches.

“But somebody’s got to look at the judiciary. Because I think these crimes, this corruption that’s being done with impunity is being done because there’s still no fear of retribution or punishment,” a protest leader who is also a prominent business executive lamented to Nosy Tarsee.

Individuals are charged with very clear evidence of, let’s say, plunder, but they get off.

“So I think somebody has to look into that also — reforms in the judiciary. I think that’s one of the basic causes for what’s happening now. We had the Priority Development Assistance Fund scam in 2013,” the executive pointed out.

He said the corruption problem keeps recurring “and at a bigger scale” because nobody got punished for the pork barrel scandal.

Only the principal perpetrator on the private side is in jail. Nobody else is. So that’s what we have to really address.

The more serious groups remain hesitant in joining protest actions because of “apprehension or hesitancy” that other groups have different motives, and “you don’t want to be associated with them.”