The Philippines now boasts Asia’s only dedicated training center for exorcists, where priests learn to distinguish genuine demonic possession from psychological illness. It is, by all accounts, a ministry of discernment.

Father Jose Francisco Syquia, who heads the St. Michael Center for Spiritual Liberation and Exorcism, says not every troubled soul is possessed. Some need prayers; others need psychiatry.

Wisdom lies in knowing the difference.

If only the demons inhabiting government were so easily identified. These spirits do not spin their heads or speak in ancient tongues. They lurk in budget documents, procurement papers, inflated contracts and the dark corners where public money quietly disappears.

They do not fear crucifixes or holy water. They fear something far more unsettling: Independent institutions, relentless evidence, and a justice system willing to follow the truth wherever it leads.

As the saying goes, the devil is in the details.

That is precisely why the questions raised by ACT Teachers Partylist Rep. Antonio Tinio deserve answers — not because they should be accepted as fact, but because no democracy should fear legitimate scrutiny.

Tinio posed what he called “the most important question now.”

“What if the biggest fish is President Bongbong Marcos himself?”

He argued that the public remains unconvinced by the prosecution of former Senator Bong Revilla and Senators Jinggoy Estrada and Rodante Marcoleta, whom he described as not being the officials most responsible for the alleged misuse of billions of pesos in flood control funds.

To Tinio’s mind, former House Speaker Martin Romualdez, Senator Francis Escudero, and several former Cabinet officials, including former Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin and former budget secretary Amenah Pangandaman, should also be investigated, “with the President at the helm.”

He went further, alleging that Romualdez and Escudero have not been charged because Marcos “must protect his allies” and, in turn, “protect himself.”

Those are allegations, not established facts. They also do not exist in a vacuum. Expelled Representative Zaldy Co has separately accused Marcos and Romualdez of receiving billions of pesos in kickbacks from ghost flood control projects, allegations that both have denied.

Co’s former bodyguards have publicly claimed that they can corroborate his account. Whether any of those claims can withstand legal scrutiny remains for investigators — not commentators — to determine. But they form part of the context by which Tinio’s challenge was made.

The Office of the Ombudsman insists it plays no favorites. Assistant Ombudsman Mico Clavano has said the office will follow the evidence wherever it leads and would investigate any public official, including the President, if the evidence warrants it. Those are reassuring words.

Now comes the harder part.

Institutions do not earn public confidence simply by declaring themselves impartial. They earn it by conducting investigations so thorough, so even-handed, and so fearless that their impartiality is unmistakable.

Justice is measured not only by the outcome but also by the public’s confidence that the same standards apply to allies and opponents alike, to the obscure and the influential, to the lowest clerk and the occupant of the nation’s highest office.

Father Syquia says exorcists must first discern what they are confronting before prescribing the remedy. Investigators face a similar obligation: Separating rumor from evidence, politics from law and accusation from proof. But once the evidence speaks, it must be allowed to speak without fear or favor.

The Philippines does not suffer from a shortage of exorcists. It suffers from a shortage of public confidence that the law reaches every corridor of power with equal resolve. That confidence will not be restored by incense or ritual.

It can only be restored by transparency and accountability.