Scandal nation

Scandal nation | Daily Tribune

When flood control was cut, corruption paved new roads

The decision to slash project construction costs at the DPWH was supposed to curb waste. Instead, as Rep. Leandro Leviste avers, the problem merely found a new outlet.

Flood control may have been pushed out of the spotlight, but road asphalt overlay quietly emerged as the more lucrative alternative.

In Leviste’s own district, a proposed asphalt overlay on the Tagaytay-Nasugbu Highway was priced at P101.5 million per kilometer — about twice what industry sources consider reasonable. Double. A 100-percent markup. Or should we call it a “kickback”?

Roads will now account for roughly half of the DPWH’s P624-billion 2026 budget, with maintenance taking the biggest slice. Asphalt overlay is attractive — it is easy to implement, harder to scrutinize, and even when substandard, the consequence is simply another overlay. No floods, no outrage, just repeat business.

If corruption once thrived in flood control, will it now thrive under the asphalt?

A year in the newsroom

Christmas has a way of forcing a pause. The noise slows. The anger softens.

This season marks one year of journalism for me. One year of writing for DAILY TRIBUNE.

I didn’t come from a journalism school. I came in learning on the job, ethics discussed after mistakes. Angles questioned. Frames debated. Headlines rewritten. Finding the thin line between catchy and misleading. Between urgency and accuracy.

There were days I reported angry. Days I defended stories harder than I should have. Days I learned that verification is not just about facts, but about humility.

But it has also been a year of wins. Of growth. Of rising after missteps. A year of giving voice to stories that others wanted buried. Of insisting that truth deserves daylight, even when people preferred darkness.

Journalism is not about perfection. It is about responsibility. About choosing honesty over comfort, even when it costs you friendships, sleep, or peace.

I have a whole life ahead of me. A whole lot of love to give. But one thing is certain: no matter the season, the pressure, or the consequence, I will always seek and tell the truth.

Merry Christmas!

Let’s talk about credentials

During last Sunday’s bicameral meeting, Senator Imee Marcos took a jab at Public Works Secretary Vince Dizon, saying he was “not an engineer” but an economist and former political aide.

She made the remark before Dizon could explain the DPWH’s request to restore the portion cut from the construction materials price adjustments in the agency’s proposed 2026 budget.

Let me be clear: I am not a Dizon devotee, but the man knows the job he was given and is dealing with problems he did not create and is now expected to fix.

What I find ironic is that this jab came from someone whose own academic claims have long been questioned.

Senator Marcos has repeatedly cited various schools in her educational background, listing Princeton University on her résumé where she supposedly graduated with honors. Princeton has stated that she was not awarded any degree.

She has also claimed to have graduated cum laude from the UP College of Law — another claim that has been disputed. Reports said she was admitted but failed to submit undergraduate credentials because they did not exist at the time.

This is not an attack on people without a formal educational attainment. Education — or the lack of it — is not shameful. What is problematic is misrepresenting one’s credentials, boasting about them, and then using those claims as a weapon to belittle others.

Well, it runs in the blood. Her brother, President Bongbong, similarly claimed to have graduated from Oxford University — another assertion contradicted by official records.

Why would someone with disputed academic claims attack someone whose background is clear — an economics graduate, a student leader, and an accomplished alumnus of a university that never denied his degree?