Cells before carols

Cells before carols | Daily Tribune

Flood control is meant to protect lives. In the Philippines, however, it has become a symbol of how public money can be used to betray the very people it is supposed to serve.

Roads still flood after ordinary rainfall, rivers overflow despite billion-peso revetment projects, and families have to repeatedly rebuild homes they were promised would stay dry. For years, the question has been constant and unanswered: Where did all the money go?

This week, that question gained renewed urgency. Reports that arrest warrants have already been issued in connection with anomalous flood control projects, coupled with President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s declaration that those responsible would be in jail before Christmas, suggest that accountability may finally be moving beyond talk. For a public long conditioned to expect impunity, the shift is significant.

For Filipinos whose lives are disrupted every rainy season, these developments are not abstract. Real arrests and credible prosecutions could amount to a rare and meaningful Christmas gift — the assurance that the suffering caused by corruption is finally being acknowledged and punished. Justice, even when delayed, matters most when it reaches those who believed they would never be touched.

The President’s pronouncement resonated precisely because it imposed an urgency. Filipinos have seen countless corruption scandals investigated, discussed, and quietly buried. A promise of imprisonment tied to a specific timeline raises expectations that this administration understands corruption not just as a political issue, but as a governance failure with human costs.

Those expectations were further sharpened when Public Works Secretary Vince Dizon publicly proposed filing charges not only against contractors and implementers, but also against lawmakers involved in irregular flood control allocations. The statement broke from a long-standing political norm that elected officials are shielded from the consequences of budget abuse. If acted upon, it would signal a decisive break from selective accountability.

Flood control corruption is not a technical offense. It is measured in flooded classrooms, ruined appliances, missed workdays, and families forced to evacuate their homes year after year. When projects are compromised and funds are diverted, the cost is paid by communities that can least afford it.

In a country battered regularly by typhoons, corruption in disaster mitigation is not merely theft — it is negligence with potentially deadly consequences.

As a Poll Starter, credibility will depend on the follow-through, where arrest warrants must rest on solid evidence, not symbolic gestures. Charges must target those truly responsible, not only the easiest defendants. Justice that stops at contractors while sparing protectors and power brokers will only deepen the public’s cynicism.

Congress, too, faces a defining test. As budget deliberations continue, particularly on infrastructure and flood control spending, lawmakers must show that lessons have been learned. Transparency, stricter safeguards, and clear public justification are no longer optional. Public trust depends on it.

If arrests and prosecutions do materialize before Christmas, it will send a powerful message — public funds meant to protect lives are sacred, and those who abuse them will be held to account. That signal would matter far more than any seasonal greeting.