Shame on the senators and representatives

“Let us not pretend anymore. The general public already knows there is racket involved in the projects — kickbacks, initiative, errata, SOP ‘for the boys.’ That is why, to those who conspire to rob the nation’s funds and steal the future of our countrymen, shame on you! Your fellow Filipinos were swept by floods or were submerged in floodwaters. Shame on you, especially to our children who will inherit the debt you incurred because you only pocketed the money.

“So that this will not happen again, first, the DPWH (Department of Public Works and Highways) will immediately submit to me a list of all flood control projects from every region that were started or completed in the last three years. Second, the Regional Project Monitoring Committee shall examine that list of projects and give a report on those that have been failures, those that were not completed, and those that are alleged to be ghost projects. And third, we will make public this list, so that the people can see these projects for themselves and freely study the list and share what they know so that they can help in our investigations.

“There will also be an audit and performance review regarding these projects to verify them and how the taxpayers’ money was spent. In the following months, charges will be filed against all those found guilty of wrongdoing, including all the contractors complicit in the corruption. The whole country must know the whole truth. Some people have to account for this large-scale corruption.”

That is what President Ferdinand Marcos, Jr. bluntly told the members of both chambers of Congress towards the end of his fourth State of the Nation Address on July 28.

The President has done what he said he will do: come out with a list of flood control projects in the last three years, make known the status of those projects, and make public those reports. The mainstream media had done a remarkable job in exposing the miserable state of those projects, the public exposure enraging the citizenry, most especially the poor.

They shrugged their shoulders in past exposures of large-scale graft and corruption, as in the fertilizer and pork barrel scams, because they didn’t feel the impact of the thievery of senators and congressmen directly. The impact of the recent floods on them was palpable. No less than the President made known to them why their humble homes were submerged in floodwaters and why their few but cherished belongings and even their beloved children were swept away by surging floods.

The President revealed that the people’s own representatives in Congress had conspired with crooked contractors to pocket the money allotted for flood control projects. He also said that a large number of House members double as flood control contractors, a flagrant example of conflict of interest.

The infuriated people can’t understand though why the President said that charges against the corrupt members of Congress and devious contractors will be filed in the coming months. Well, incontrovertible evidence that the accused have violated the law has first to be gathered exhaustively. In the pork barrel scam, Senators Juan Ponce Enrile, Jinggoy Estrada, and Bong Revilla were accused of pocketing millions of pork barrel funds. All three were eventually acquitted by the Sandiganbayan because the “state prosecutors failed to submit sufficient evidence.”

The President finally yielded to calls to remove Manuel Bonoan as head of the DPWH and named Transportation Secretary Vince Dizon as Bonoan’s replacement. Mr. Dizon filed a case against the obviously guilty Henry Alcantara, former Bulacan DPWH 1st District Engineer, just last Friday. Mr. Dizon said he will file charges against Alcantara’s subordinates, former Assistant District Engineer Brice Ericson Hernandez, Construction Section Chief Engineer Jaypee Mendoza, and Accountant III Juanito Mendoza, all from the Bulacan 1st District Engineering Office in the coming days.

“Shame on you!” President Marcos told the corrupt lawmakers to their face. Some of them jumped to their feet, yelled, and clapped in feigned innocence when the President expressed his disgust. What the angry citizens can do while waiting for charges against congressmen to be filed is to shame the obviously guilty, particularly those who flaunted their ill-gotten wealth. But let us shame them within the bounds of civility.

In 1988, leaders of the Anti-Crony Movement were organizing a demonstration at the lobby of the hotel where a wedding reception was going to be held. The plan called for members of the Movement to greet the guests with placards saying “Nakaw na Kayamanan Ibalik sa Bayan (Return Stolen Wealth to the Nation).” The father of the bridegroom was said to be getting a 5% commission on every purchase of the ministry he headed. However, the planned demonstration was called off as it was deemed to be in bad taste. Also, it was considered unfair to the innocent newlyweds.

But an incident in 2013 was fitting and proper. During the Million People March against the pork barrel scandal at the Luneta on National Heroes Day, a former high-ranking public official, who had been removed from a supreme public office in disgrace for his failure to disclose millions of dollars in his statement of assets, joined the protest march. Upon seeing him, the marchers surrounded and booed him. His family had to lead him away from the hooting and charging crowd in shame.

But let us not allow the trapos* to exploit those demonstrations of anger, as many are already doing in the halls of the Senate and of the House to gain the people’s goodwill — in aid of their re-election. As in the Senate hearings on Alice Guo, Senators Jinggoy Estrada and Joel Villanueva are grandstanding in the on-going investigation of the flood control ignominy.

Neophyte senator Rodante Marcoleta, chairman of the Blue Ribbon Committee, reminds me of the way Richard Gordon, former chairman of the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee multiple times, conducted Blue Ribbon Committee hearings — as producer, scriptwriter, director, and star of the Big Show that Blue Ribbon inquiries often are.

Days after his State of the Nation Address, President Marcos Jr. said he will create an Independent Commission that will investigate the anomalies of flood control projects. He has very good reasons to form an independent investigation body as members of both chambers of Congress may be complicit in the grand scam.

Senate President Francis Escudero, Senate Majority Floor Leader Joel Villanueva, and Senators JV Ejercito and Robin Padilla are recipients of tens of millions of pesos in election campaign funds from flood control contractors. Mr. Escudero denied extending help to Centerways Construction and Development, Inc., which won several flood-control projects and whose president donated P30 million to his campaign in the 2022 elections.

Mr. Villanueva stood on the Senate floor and declared that none of his colleagues were linked to the 15 contractors President Marcos Jr. had named. But according to the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism, he himself received from New San Jose Builders, Inc. (which is not one of the 15 contractors in the President’s list) P20 million for his 2022 Senate campaign.

The Omnibus Election Code explicitly prohibits government contractors from contributing to political campaigns, and politicians from accepting such donations. I suppose that is meant to prevent quid pro quo deals. Quid pro quo is a Latin phrase that literally means something for something. It’s often used to refer to an exchange of favors. Quid pro quo deals are normal everywhere. In the Philippines, politics is often a game of quid pro quo.

During his campaign for president in 2016, Rodrigo Duterte repeatedly said that former president Gloria Macapagal Arroyo and Ilocos Norte Governor Imee Marcos were major contributors to his campaign fund. In the first month of Duterte’s presidency, the Supreme Court acquitted Arroyo of the charge of plunder and in the fifth month, the Supreme Court allowed the burial of former president Marcos, Imee’s father, in the Libingan ng mga Bayani.

In 2000, President Joseph Estrada was accused of plunder for pocketing P4 billion from jueteng** pay-offs and misappropriating tobacco excise tax funds. In 2007, the Sandiganbayan found Estrada guilty of plunder “beyond reasonable doubt.” In 2007, Sen. Jinggoy Estrada had said the appointment to the Supreme Court of Sandiganbayan Justices Teresita De Castro and Francisco Villaruz by President Arroyo seemed like a reward in exchange for the guilty verdict against his father.*** Sandiganbayan Justice Diosdado Peralta was elevated to the Supreme Court two years later.

Could the Supreme Court’s declaring the impeachment of Sara Duterte unconstitutional be a case of quid pro quo? Of the 13 Supreme Court associate justices who voted that the impeachment was unconstitutional, 11 were appointed to the Court by Sara’s father.

Political allies of those who might be dragged into the scam appear to be shielding them. During the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee’s first hearing on the flood control projects, Sen. Bato de la Rosa was grilling flood control contractor Sarah Discaya aggressively. When he asked when Discaya started doing business with the government, she answered “2016 onwards.” That stopped Dela Rosa dead on his tracks.

Discaya’s simple answer meant she began bidding on flood-control projects in 2016, the start of the administration of President Rodrigo Duterte, Dela Rosa’s patron. The secretary of Department of Public Works and Highways from 2016 to 2021 was Mark Villar, De La Rosa’s fellow senator and political ally. If she had been doing business with the DPWH since 2016, then DPWH Secretary Villar was remiss at least in being oblivious to the many flawed projects of Discaya.

That is not a gratuitous assumption. Mark Villar is the engineer in the Villar family. The family’s Siquijor Power Corp. was shut down by Energy Secretary Sharon Garin for its poor service in the Central Visayas island. The family’s Prime Water has been the object of complaints of frequent and prolonged water interruptions, dirty and foul-smelling water, and exorbitant rates.

So, right on with your Independent Commission, Mr. President, so the whole country will know who the shameful members of Congress are. Shame those who are already known, citizens for good government.

*A play on “traditional politicians,” the word trapo means “rag.”

** An illegal numbers game.

*** Senator Jinggoy Estrada, in a privileged speech on Nov. 5, 2007, vowed to block the appointment to the Supreme Court of Sandiganbayan Justices Teresita De Castro and Francisco Villaruz, Jr. who convicted President Joseph Estrada. “Such a promotion would seem like a reward in exchange for the guilty verdict against the deposed President. We are convinced, then and now, that the special court created to exclusively try the case of President Estrada was established precisely to convict him, which is what exactly happened,” he said.

Oscar P. Lagman, Jr. has been a keen observer of Philippine politics since the late 1950s.