Franco is not one of us
There are many Franco Mabantas I know — some of them within arm’s length: loud, proud and hollow.
Daily TribuneThere are many Franco Mabantas I know — some of them within arm’s length: loud, proud and hollow.
Untouchable no more?
For years, Ralph Recto operated as an untouchable figure in Philippine politics — powerful, deeply connected, protected by his decades within the system. Critics came and went. Most stayed silent. Until Leandro Leviste.
Instead of backing down after Recto accused him of bribery, having troll farms, pushing AI propaganda, and promoting “ghost” solar projects, the Batangas congressman escalated the fight and demanded a public congressional hearing with witnesses and evidence presented.
That is the part that should bother Recto the most.
Because once politicians start inviting sworn testimony, the conversation stops being controlled by Palace statements and carefully crafted press releases.
Recto called Leviste dangerous. But the public has heard powerful officials use that script before whenever someone started asking uncomfortable questions.
The bigger issue is this: If Recto is truly confident there is nothing anomalous involving Batangas contractors, political allies and alleged connections as raised by Leviste, then why not face a hearing? Why not answer every accusation point-by-point under oath?
The public anger toward political dynasties and entrenched power is boiling. And now, someone is finally saying it out loud.
— Jason Mago
Crazy bureaucrazy
I was covering the President at the ASEAN Summit 2026 when I peeled off to sit in on a smaller, quieter gathering on the sidelines — another ASEAN-related summit. There were foreign business executives and they had one consistent message: The regulations are there, but the execution is not.
They were diplomatic about it. I won’t be.
This is the Philippines in one line. We are a country of beautiful legislation and broken follow-throughs. We draft policy with the ambition of a nation that wants to matter on the world stage, then we bury it in queues for permits, inter-agency turf wars, and the slow, indifferent machinery of a bureaucracy never held accountable for failing to move.
A plethora of statements, blueprints, work plans, MoUs — signed, filed, forgotten — that exist nowhere but in drawers.
If well-educated foreign executives have to struggle to navigate Philippine regulations, what exactly do we expect of ordinary Filipinos?
Think about your SSS, PhilHealth, Pag-IBIG contributions. Money taken from your salary before you even see it. Mandatory. Non-negotiable. And yet try to understand what you are actually entitled to. Try to maximize those benefits without spending hours researching, calling hotlines that ring endlessly, or physically lining up in offices that still run on paper forms.
The system takes from you efficiently. It gives back reluctantly, opaquely, and only if you know to ask the right questions in the right sequence.
Government agencies are still figuring things out among themselves — clashing with one another despite serving the same flag. Is it structural? Is it political will? That question never gets a clean answer at any summit.
Because while permits pile up and agreements gather dust, other things move fast. Travel authorities for a Vice President, signed without delay. Budgets for projects that leave behind ghost infrastructure and audit flags. That paper moves.
The Philippines is not incapable of execution. It executes very well when the beneficiary is powerful enough.
What it cannot seem to execute is the grinding, unglamorous work of making government function for the people it is supposed to serve.
— Carl Magadia
I know many Franco Mabantas
The case of Franco Mabanta has nothing to do with journalism or freedom of the press.
This is a textbook example of what happens when you place someone with little to no grounding in the craft in an industry that demands discipline, ethics, and credibility. You cannot simply say someone will “learn the ropes along the way.” You don’t throw an untrained man onto a battlefield, give him authority, and expect the battalion to survive.
There are many Franco Mabantas I know — some of them within arm’s length: loud, proud and hollow. Nothing substantial on the ground — only ego, branding and high-level partnership-seeking. They enter industries posing as legitimate experts, masking their incompetence with their visibility.
The biggest shame — if the extortion allegations are true — is not only the act itself, but the damage it causes to everyone around him. No principled journalist would accept — much less demand — kill fees from a branded nepo-corrupt politician believed to be among the masterminds of one of the country’s biggest money-and-lives-stealing scandals.
What makes it worse is that the people around him now carry the stain of his actions. Their credibility — if they had any — will now be tainted by association. His team is left dealing with the consequences of his reckless, self-serving decisions.
Give a reckless man a platform, attention and money, and you create someone destined for disaster: careless, greedy and desperate for recognition at any cost. The louder the applause, the more untouchable he believes he is.
If Mabanta truly has credible evidence against Martin Romualdez, there should have been no teasers, cliffhangers, or buildups. Exposing the truth is not a bargaining chip. The moment it becomes leverage, you become part of the rot you claim to expose.
— Vivienne Angeles