Baguio City Mayor Benjamin Magalong cried foul over a plot to ease him out of the Independent Commission for Infrastructure or ICI as he lamented a ‘deep seated’ corruption in government.
Discussing his brief stint in the ICI, Magalong did not mince words in calling out ‘corrupt politicians, bureaucrats, Department of Public Works and Highways officials and contractors who made a cottage industry or a livelihood program’ out of ghost DPWH projects or substandard works.
Magalong also described as ‘shameless, callous and hypocritical’ the claim of former Ako Bicol congressman Zaldy Co that his resignation from the House of Representatives is the ‘ultimate sacrifice.’
‘There’s no transparency whatsoever. They’re just so comfortable doing it that they’re not afraid. Lately, a congressman involved, Zaldy Co, said he did not abandon it, that it was a sacrifice. My God! You stole from national coffers and you will say it was a sacrifice on your part and not an abandonment?’ Magalong said, referring to Co’s fellow Ako Bicol Rep. Alfredo Garbin’s statement that ‘Co’s act of resignation is not an abandonment, but a sacrifice.’
‘Is that how low our standards in Congress are already? Is that how shameless we are? How insensitive, callous and hypocritical. It is insulting to the Filipino mentality,’ he added.
Magalong said corruption is so ‘deeply rooted,’ noting a padded national budget following the ‘insertions’ of the lawmakers’ pet projects in the General Appropriations Act, even when these are not found in the executive spending plan in the National Expenditure Program.
For him, this has resulted in thousands of ghost projects, including a province that has up to 9,000 anomalous projects.
‘I had found out that it was so widespread and the magnitude so overwhelming, one cannot dispose of the thousands of cases in just a year. The Filipino people are not stupid, but they make us look stupid that we would not catch them out. It is insulting,’ Magalong said.
Hitting too close to home
Magalong, during a Senate science and technology committee hearing to discuss Baguio’s best anti-corruption practices and give inputs on Sen. Bam Aquino’s proposal to legislate ‘blockchain’ technology yesterday, said he was quietly pushed out of the ICI because his investigations upset powerful people.
‘I think I struck a nerve,’ he said, suggesting that his work ‘may have hit too close to home’ for some involved in alleged irregularities.
Magalong also expressed his ill feelings following a Malacañang press conference that cast doubt on his dual role as ICI special adviser and mayor as well as questioned his independence.
‘I was really surprised when suddenly I was asked in a press conference without even consulting me, and it was hastily arranged, to say I am not an investigator, but a special adviser,’ he said, referring to a Sept. 26 briefing of Palace press officer Claire Castro.
Castro had said that Magalong was appointed adviser, ‘not an investigator’ and that his role in the Discaya couple’s Baguio project could undermine the ICI’s independence. She was referring to a P110-million tennis court contracted by Curlee and Sarah Discaya, which was allegedly found to be substandard.
‘They called out conflict of interest, but it is them who made a workaround for me to be legal adviser. Suddenly, here comes a below the belt accusation that the Discayas have an anomalous tennis court project. That was too much. It’s like you are making me appear corrupt, which I will not take sitting down,’ Magalong said, citing his record of fighting corruption in government.
In a chance interview after the hearing, Magalong said he would rather not name anyone, but called out Malacañang’s ‘anomalous press conference’ and the ‘below the belt’ accusations against him.