By Robert B. Roque, Jr.
Who would not break down in the face of a reality so cruel: corruption so deliberate that working Filipinos, even students, are left wading in floodwaters. President Marcos came close to tears during his interview with GMA News anchor Vicky Morales, as he voiced frustration over contractors and corrupt actors in the government conspiring over “ghost” flood control projects.
Public disgust has been growing as netizens remain critical of the President, as all these issues have occurred under his watch. So while it might have been hard for him to watch Filipinos, young and old, wading through the floods — some losing their homes, dying of leptospirosis — nothing is more difficult than the fact that decent people are forced to endure the punishment of plunder.
As taxpayer money paid for ghost flood-control projects certified as “100% complete” and paid in full, when in truth, not a single sack of cement was ever poured, your tears, Mr. President, serve nothing in making the criminals suffer.
Your order for a sweeping review of the DPWH’s 2026 budget is only the first step, but to truly bring the guilty to account would require more than just audits. Every engineer, every builder, every bureaucrat who signed off on these phantom projects must be dragged into the light.
But here lies the problem — even as the President calls for sweeping audits, the very institutions tasked to probe the plunderers appear hesitant to dig deep. Last week’s tri-committee hearing of the House exposed more than flood-control anomalies — it revealed the unwillingness of lawmakers to summon their own.
Motions to invite Ako Bicol Rep. Zaldy Co — “Specimen No. 1,” accused of inserting ₱13.8 billion into the bicam budget — were swiftly deferred. Suddenly, Co is in the United States for “medical treatment.” Convenient timing, convenient alibi.
Worse, House Infra Committee Chair Terry Ridon and allies argued Co’s case was “not within scope,” a line that only fuels suspicions of congressional self-preservation.
Rep. Chel Diokno offered four suggestions, which we could only hope new DPWH Chief Vince Dizon would push to cleanse his ranks, starting with compelling all officials and employees to sign waivers of the bank secrecy law. If they are clean, they have nothing to hide; if not, their deposits will betray them.
Second, secure all government-issued devices — phones, laptops, computers — used by officials past and present who signed off on ghost or unfinished projects already paid in full.
Third, direct telcos to preserve call logs, messages, and geolocation data from these devices. If public money was stolen using government-issued gadgets, then those records belong to the people as evidence.
Finally, Diokno cited the Supreme Court’s ruling on cyber-warrant powers. DPWH can seek court warrants to intercept and extract data from these government-issued gadgets to build up cases against officials behind this systemic corruption.
At the Senate, Sen. Panfilo Lacson pushes harder for naming the congressmen who authored the “individual amendments” that inserted billions into DPWH’s budget for flood projects that never existed. Transparency cannot be partial, he said. It must be absolute transparency to go after those accountable.
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