Scandal after scandal

Scandal after scandal | Daily Tribune

We are a scandal-ridden nation, with the epicenter in the corridors of Malacañang.

Five thousand five hundred flood control projects, as the centerpiece program of the Ferdinand Marcos Jr. administration, turned out to be the source of the most scandalous corruption, unprecedented in the country’s history.

The project’s engineering design is marvelous. Conceptualized by Marcos, budgeted by his cousin, the erstwhile House Speaker Romualdez, acted on by the “small committee” led by Appropriations Committee chairman Zaldy Co, and executed by then Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) Secretary Manuel Bonoan and his subordinates, who did the triumvirate’s bidding like hungry hyenas.

They all connived to build a mind-blowing engineering design that cost millions of pesos, but not to exceed P150 million each, so that it would be within the authority of the District Engineer.

The scheme was to shield the department head office, as this is right under the nose of the President. If the project cost is beyond that, then it is “segmentized,” a strategy that partakes of technical malversation.

By rough estimate, over a trillion pesos went to corruption.

We are a cursed nation. A religious civil society group led by a modern-day Padre Damaso, the drug-rehabbed Flavie Villanueva, is awed by the intangible flood control projects that have drained the nation’s coffers.

To defend the ghost projects, he and his flock denounced the P125-million Confidential and Intelligence Fund of the Office of the Vice President, stressing he will not stop his tirade, claiming God is behind him.

What a sacrilege this man with the frock proclaimed amid the magma of corruption in the scandalous flood control projects. What disturbed me, though, is the silence of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines.

Talking of scandal, Malacañang appeared to be unperturbed by the flurry of comments about the lurid bedroom scenes posted on social media by one named Deen Chase, said to be an OFW.

I need not elaborate on this further, except to say that I’m aghast, for matters like this should have been brought before the proper court to stop the denigration of our President.

Furthermore, it is worrisome because it reveals not only the failure of the security detail to protect the First Family from intruders but also state secrets.

But the choice of what options President Marcos will take is his to decide. For now, what is certain is that Deen or Din Chase is a veritable pain in the neck for a President whose state of health has spawned public speculation and is a matter of serious concern. And there’s the looming impeachment case dangled by those who, not long ago, were singing Hosanna to him.