Boomerang effect

The resignations in government, which the administration of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has lately been applying to soothe the public outrage over the flood control scandal, will backfire.

The recent replacement of key officials, starting with the relief of Revenue Commissioner Romeo Lumagui, have raised public alarm when the government is being relied on to show its will.

The Marcos administration appears to be collapsing, as the changes involve prominent Cabinet positions.

As the supposed resignations were forced on the officials, the majority of Filipinos believe the leadership has left individuals in the cold rather than standing by them.

A disconnect between the Palace, its allies, and Congress, with the sole purpose of discrediting former House appropriations panel chairperson Zaldy Co who issued damaging allegations against Marcos, also tend to accelerate the downward spiral of the administration.

Instead of being firm about Co’s allegations being baseless, they were given credence after a series of resignations with vague explanations.

A political pundit has compared what is being done to put out the fire to physicist Albert Einstein’s definition of insanity, which is “doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result.”

There is an utter lack of anticipation on Marcos’ part. The analyst noted that Marcos has undergone “explosive exposés before” without responding, while saying that he will not dignify the allegations.

Cited as an example was the time Vice President Sara Duterte pointed at the camera and threatened to kill Marcos, the First Lady, and the Speaker.

He never spoke. He always addressed it through a proxy. It’s always either through the First Lady, who at that time came out, or his son, but never the President.

There are many holes in the claim that the budget manipulations occurred without the President’s knowledge.

“We’re not talking about millions here. We’re talking about billions. Isn’t it rather odd? Is that believable?” a former member of the President’s economic team said.

That leaves two choices as to the kind of leader Marcos is: either he allowed, if not led, the plunder of public funds, or he is stupid enough to miss what’s going on.

Senator Imee Marcos did not even expose something new since most people knew privately about the narcotics addiction of the President and the First Lady.

“And which President Duterte talked about, which even Imee talked about before.”

Nonetheless, in her speech before the Iglesia ni Cristo (INC) two-day assembly, Imee said she persuaded former President Rodrigo Duterte to withhold the name of her brother from the narco list of officials who are drug users, which made her complicit in her brother’s vice.

The extent of involvement, or those exposed to be part of it, of officials in all branches of government is alarming.

Regarding the resigned officials, they may have found it hard to keep lying and covering up for themselves and this administration, particularly since it involves the disbursement of the national budget.

As has been often said: “You can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you cannot fool all of the people all of the time.”

When officials shield each other, every attempt at accountability loses credibility.