Manufactured hero

Manufactured hero | Daily Tribune

He has used the authority sparingly, and mostly on items that were already indefensible, not on every project that bled the GAA dry.

That failure is crucial because Marcos had positioned himself as the man who blew the whistle on the flood control scandal.

In his recent State of the Nation Address (SoNA), Marcos said, “We stopped public funds from being spent on defective, fake, or even fictitious projects, money that would otherwise have ended up in the pockets of corrupt contractors and government officials.

Nearly P25 billion worth of funds and assets linked to the accused have been recovered, frozen, or preserved. Of this amount, more than P800 million has been returned to the National Treasury.”

Yet, he could have halted the massive pilferage of the budget through his veto power.

He just didn’t. He signed the budgets that funded it, three years running, then stood at the podium in July 2025 and told the officials and contractors he had funded to be ashamed of themselves.

The proximity question that connects the Palace is real. Fugitive former Ako Bicol Rep. Elizaldy Co, in a Facebook video released in November 2025, alleged he personally delivered P1 billion in suitcases on two occasions to Justice Undersecretary Jojo Cadiz, a longtime Marcos aide, at a house in South Forbes Park, money Co says was meant for the president and routed through then Speaker Martin Romualdez’s instructions.

Cadiz offered his resignation. Marcos has not accepted it, and he remains at his post while the Ombudsman “looks into” the matter.

Co also alleged that then Budget Secretary Amenah Pangandaman ordered him to insert P100 billion in projects into the 2025 national budget, with the project list handed to him inside Malacañang by Presidential Legislative Liaison Office Undersecretary Adrian Bersamin.

Senator Ping Lacson, notably, has said publicly he believes the President was misrepresented by his own aides rather than was personally involved, that Bersamin and a former education undersecretary took the kickbacks and used Marcos’ name without his knowledge.

For keeping her silence, Pangandaman received a payback and was appointed chairperson and CEO of the Al-Amanah Islamic Investment Bank of the Philippines, the country’s only Islamic bank and a subsidiary of the Development Bank of the Philippines.

Meanwhile, Bersamin has not been called to testify before the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee.

Romualdez, the President’s cousin, faces a complaint before the Office of the Ombudsman alleging that he personally received P56 billion in kickbacks between 2022 and 2025. The President has vowed that the “wheels of justice” would turn even if it involved his own relatives.

Taken together, these developments have fueled the perception that the proceedings amount to a charade, one that will ultimately shield the person who bears the greatest responsibility.