Big picture emerges

With public attention shifting to the reissued documents of the International Criminal Court (ICC) that disclose the previously redacted names of alleged co-perpetrators in the drug war, those seeking to deflect scrutiny from the “Floodgate” scandal have gained breathing room to regroup.

The Palace and its allies have seized the moment, intensifying their attacks on the opposition and using the specter of potential ICC arrests of key figures as political leverage.

The public, which has shown growing impatience over the failure of the investigations into the corruption that has been going on with the budget since President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. took office, has been proffered a diversion.

The once hot trail on the architects of the flood control mess has turned cold, which former Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Solita Monsod said is being done on purpose.

“There is a way (to pin down the masterminds), so since they have not found that way, the only conclusion that I can make is that they have no will to do it because it hits too close to home,” she said.

Some members of Congress are of the deranged mentality that the national budget is theirs for the picking, and they use the money of the people to ensure that they will be elected again.

“So they steal all this money from the people, then they give them a little money during elections, then they steal again, and they become rich,” Monsod bewailed.

Greed has become so pervasive that corruption has been institutionalized in the national budget.

“They became extremely efficient at stealing, how the funds are divided, who gets what commission, and who pockets what. Corruption became very efficient,” pointed out the University of the Philippines professor emeritus.

Investigators have said that following due process takes time and that cases must be airtight, but Monsod said common sense dictates that with all the investigating forces and intelligence and confidential funds available, plus the budgets of the investigating agencies, it would be easy to look at the statements of assets and liabilities and compare them with politicians’ lifestyles.

“It should be easy. I mean, you look at Chiz Escudero or Joel Villanueva with their watches, and you say, “How can a sitting congressman or senator afford that kind of watch?”

The trouble with that is that an earnest lifestyle check may affect 90 percent of the legislature.

“The Department of Finance has a lifestyle check team. What has it been doing? And what happened to the former Finance chief? He became Executive Secretary.”

“The former Executive Secretary had to go because of corruption links, and then the Budget Secretary had to go as well. When are we going to get to the congressmen and senators?” she rattled off the questions.

What would convince Monsod that the government is not hiding anything and is not resorting to obfuscation?

“I want to see a case against a sitting senator and a sitting congressman, and start with the heads of the House and the Senate who were involved in the 2025 scandal,” Monsod declared.

She is indignant about the ongoing cover-ups, saying that former Senate President Chiz Escudero had admitted receiving a campaign contribution from a contractor.

“What did Comelec do? They said it was (the contractor’s) personal funds, not the firm’s funds. What a lame excuse. Then they should find out whether he is really that rich that he can give P30 million on his own.”

In the murky and calculated world of politics, incumbents and their allies wield power while courting desperate foreign actors, often instruments of broader hegemonic ambitions.