By Robert B. Roque, Jr.
Just days after President Marcos formed the Independent Commission for Infrastructure to probe the “ghost” flood control projects, the public finally saw movement. With the integrity of Justice Andres Bernal Reyes Jr., former DPWH chief Babes Singson, and SGV’s Rossana Fajardo at the helm — plus Baguio Mayor Benjamin Magalong as investigator — the commission looks built to work.
So, last Tuesday came, and the Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC) slapped freeze orders on 135 bank accounts and 27 insurance policies tied to the DPWH flood control scandal. That’s 26 individuals and firms, including DPWH insiders Henry Alcantara, Brice Ericson Hernandez, Jaypee Mendoza, John Michael Ramos, Ernesto Galang — and yes, the Discayas, the “BGC Boys,” and their co-conspirators in allegedly siphoning billions of taxpayers’ hard-earned money.
First, this would not have happened had the new DPWH secretary, Vince Dizon, not hit the ground running. It was Dizon who asked AMLC to act, and it was Dizon who dismissed and suspended erring officials, insisting on evidence to pin them down.
He’s still going out there, looking for more evidence of the sickening truth: projects supposedly completed to shield lives and towns from floods have turned out to be creampuff structures, “props” stuck into riverbanks and slopes to look good on paper, but worthless against rising waters. This was exactly what Dizon and Magalong saw in La Union — a flood mitigation project declared “completed” last March, but still under construction, built with substandard materials, and nine others no better than flimsy placeholders.
Heartbreaking finds – yes! But at least, not a whitewashing. It appears that the more Dizon and the Commission set out to verify what’s on DPWH accomplishment papers, the more “ghosts” would be uncovered. So AMLC better be in fighting form, too. Because the list of accounts frozen is just the beginning.
The evidence has not brought AMLC’s powers to members of Congress just yet. We’ve got to stay vigilant and ensure no names are being sanitized from the list, that no accounts are quietly spared. Because contractors and DPWH wise guys are definitely in cahoots with elected officials wielding the power of the purse.
Incidentally, what’s the news with Zaldy Co? And why is it that various stuff have been moving out of Speaker Martin Romualdez’s office at the time of this writing? I’ll leave this hanging, but I’m quite certain by the time this piece is published, we’ll all have a sense of clarity.
Cookoo in the House
By the way, there’s something cookoo about a certain Kiko in Congress. Reporters have noted his odd turns of phrase, while Deputy Speaker Ronaldo Puno went further — saying Cavite 4th District Rep. Kiko Barzaga is “unwell,” citing his abrupt intrusion into Majority Leader Sandro Marcos’s office to pitch himself as Speaker: “Join me, I will make you deputy speaker.”
Ambushed by reporters, Barzaga brushed the “unwell” comment off, arguing that medical records are confidential and that setting a precedent of forced disclosure would be dangerous. On that, he’s not wrong. But the timing of NUP’s attacks reeks of retaliation after he disengaged from the party.
As for me, if there’s anything sane in this circus, it was Barzaga’s decision to quit NUP — a party now soiled by the stink of its leaders involved in the flood control scams and the plunder of taxpayers’ money. And in the unlikely event that he were to replace Romualdez as Speaker? I’d rather have a suspected cookoo than a suspected crook.
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