Benjie Magalong is a dangerous man. All relentless people are.
When he starts something, he fully intends to complete it. When he begins investigating, he will not stop until he gets to the bottom of it all. When he finds the truth, he proclaims it with ardor.
When asked to investigate the massacre at Mamasapano, he refused to acquit a bungling administration. When asked to investigate the so-called ‘ninja cops,’ he did not care if he stepped on powerful toes. He did not become chief of the PNP because he cannot be cowed by the powers-that-be.
The House of Representatives did not dare summon him to the hearings on the flood control scam. The congressmen could not handle the truth spoken to their faces.
Magalong was competent, trained and courageous. The entrenched political elite fears such a man – especially one with an Igorot name. He is unlikely to play by the unwritten rules.
Because he had assiduously investigated the ‘kalakaran’ of our pork barrel politics – and was not hesitant to talk about his findings – Magalong had to somehow be coopted into the Independent Commission on Infrastructure (ICI). Involving him somehow as a nebulously defined ‘special adviser’ would add credibility to the proceedings. His credibility was a gift to a beleaguered administration.
Except that he took his role too seriously and worked too hard. That was not supposed to happen. He visited the far-flung ghost projects and invited media attention to them. At the rate he was going, it was only a matter of time before he began looking at the infra projects done in Ilocos Norte and Leyte.
Magalong, the only functioning component of the ICI, cannot be tamed. It was hard to convince the relentless investigator that some political personalities were untouchable. They tried to rein him in. Crudely, as is characteristic of the corrupt bums responsible for this colossal mess.
Soon enough the Palace mouthpiece, the one with an overblown fashion sense, began talking about ‘conflict-of-interest’ issues. She was planting intrigue when there should be none. She was later joined by a chorus of leftist groups who prefer to talk about a parking lot in Baguio City than look closely at a criminal cabal that looted taxpayer money in the hundreds of billions linked the the highest echelons of the political establishment.
Magalong promptly resigned. He was too honorable a man to play the silly games those involved in a monumental cover-up prefer.
This is just the first kink in the huge, richly funded apparatus intended to cut this colossal scandal down to size and spare the most prominent suspects. Forcing Magalong out, however, is likely to backfire. Exclusion will not silence this man.
Immediately after Magalong resigned, the ICI informs us there will be no live coverage of the proceedings. This will only make the commission a sort of black hole where scandals go to die.
The ICI decision to keep the public out throws a shroud over the inquiry. The commissioners will become like gnomes cobbling inside a rabbit hole – or grifting tailors fashioning the emperor’s new clothes. In the end, the plan might be for this underfunded and understaffed ‘commission’ to produce a dense report destined for the archives.
This, after all, has been the way our corrupt political elite dealt with scandals involving the corruption that rots away at the nation’s core: appoint some powerless fact-finding body, buy some time for the public outrage to dissipate, spread the blame so thinly it disappears like melted butter on hot toast, throw up a lot of distractions, jail a few of the most notorious and bury the rest of the thing in the archives.
This is a strategy that, unfortunately, worked time and time again. It works especially well in a country notorious for having a short memory – and an even shorter attention span.
We are witnessing the greatest corruption scandal in our scandal-prone history. Reformists should never let a good scandal go to waste. Today, however, we are in peril of doing that.
Those who have somehow insinuated themselves into leadership roles over the civil society hordes seem perfectly content to let the big fish go. They fear tumult and fear the possible outcome of a political explosion. Their fears – not the possibility of meaningful reform – dictate their strategy.
The regime might find comfort in the thought that Filipinos never revolt before Christmas. The air is simply too thick with cheer. While there is outrage, there is little desire to rebel. There is still time to put this colossal scandal in a box and bury it.
Our two most recent risings happened in February and January, when the weather is agreeable. But the rustlings began long before that.
There is certainly some rustling happening. But there is no rallying point. There is hesitance to direct the rage at the untouchables.
But there is more to be revealed. The revelations will happen when those who hold the secrets find the heroism to speak the truth.
The war between the contending factions will not wait for those still mustering courage. For some major players facing the prospect of becoming scapegoats, this has become an existential question. If they must go down, they will drag their rivals with them.
We know wealth and power are never strangers. In this country, they are cousins.