Untouchables

The Senate has once again shown how power protects its own, as investigating bodies had failed to move swiftly in prosecuting lawmakers accused of corruption.

President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. and heads of investigative agencies had promised the prosecution of members of Congress — the so-called big fish — before 15 December. 

The deadline passed, but the institution now in danger of collapse is not the legislators, but the Independent Commission on Infrastructure (ICI), which is investigating them.

Senators continue to hold the advantage. Retired Ombudsman Conchita Carpio Morales cited Senator Joel Villanueva as a telling example, noting how he was able to wiggle out of a dismissal order and perpetual disqualification from public office over his involvement in the Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) scam.

Villanueva, along with several of his colleagues, is again implicated in the multibillion-peso flood control project scandal — and once more, the “big fish” appears to be slipping away.

Carpio Morales recounted the suspicious circumstances that led to Villanueva’s acquittal after Samuel Martires assumed office as Ombudsman.

Villanueva, during his tenure as a House representative for the Citizens’ Battle Against Corruption (CIBAC) party-list in 2008, was accused of misusing P10 million in PDAF allocated for an agribusiness livelihood project in Compostela Valley province, now Davao de Oro.

The project supposedly involved the distribution of vegetable seedlings, fertilizers and threshers to farmer beneficiaries through two non-government organizations — the Social Development Program for Farmers Foundation Inc. and the People’s Organization for Progress and Development Foundation Inc. — funded through Villanueva’s pork barrel.

Investigators later found the project to be fictitious. Listed beneficiaries were not registered voters in the area, project sites were unsuitable for farming as they were mountainous or residential, the NGOs lacked operational capacity, the supplier could not be located, and supporting documents appeared fabricated.

In November 2016, Carpio Morales found Villanueva guilty of grave misconduct, serious dishonesty and conduct prejudicial to the best interest of the service. 

She ordered his dismissal from public service, perpetual disqualification from holding public office, forfeiture of retirement benefits and cancellation of civil service eligibility. 

She also directed the filing of criminal charges, including malversation, falsification of public documents and violations of the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act.

The Senate, however, had refused to enforce the dismissal order, arguing that the Ombudsman had no jurisdiction over members of Congress and that the complaint was filed beyond the one-year prescriptive period under the Ombudsman Act.

In July 2019, Martires reversed Carpio Morales’ 2016 ruling after granting Villanueva’s motion for reconsideration. That reversal surfaced only in October 2025, when current Ombudsman Jesus Crispin Remulla announced plans to enforce the original dismissal and discovered the undisclosed decision.

“The Senate was key to Villanueva eluding accountability,” Carpio Morales said.

“I requested, not ordered, the Senate to act. Constitutionally, the Ombudsman has jurisdiction over all public officials. However, Congress passed a law effectively exempting its members from the Ombudsman’s administrative jurisdiction. They legislated themselves out of accountability,” she added.

The former Supreme Court associate justice said the Senate’s actions, along with other institutions invoking privilege, have entrenched impunity.

“Transparency and accountability are lacking. Many institutions — the Bureau of Internal Revenue, Bureau of Customs, Bureau of Immigration, even the Department of Education and Health — have been implicated. People scratch each other’s backs,” she said.

Unless this sense of privilege is broken and elected officials are reminded that they are public servants, corruption will remain a national curse.