We are facing nine years of darkness if our string of bad luck continues: three remaining years of BBM and six years of the brat, assuming the surveys are right and she will be elected in 2028.
Our only hope now is for BBM to get out of his lackadaisical mode and move as if his life depends on it. Those bastards responsible for this massive corruption scandal must go to jail soonest. Otherwise, an unspeakable nightmare is our future.
It’s the fault of our voters who stupidly elected two people with no proven ability for good governance. Both are just nepo babies of previous strongmen. What is happening now shouldn’t be surprising.
In the face of this trillion-peso robbery of the treasury, the sitting nepo baby should be eager to save his ass. A recent survey showed the brat at the top of the list of candidates who may be elected president in 2028. That’s not counting the possibility that the old man may croak at The Hague. That should give BBM nightmares.
BBM may not mind being exiled the second time but his children’s future will be dim.
As I pointed out in a past column, it all starts with BBM. He signed the budget used to legally scam the taxpayers. He failed to veto the provisions that provided the legal means for carrying out ghost projects. His DBM Secretary didn’t warn him that he is signing the permission for ghost projects.
In a sense, there is blood in BBM’s hands. There is no way BBM can claim he didn’t know. His son is Deputy Speaker and should have known and should have told him about the insertions in the budget. Unless they are also looking forward to the fruits of insertions.
That’s why BBM should make a clean breast of it, admit his shortcoming that allowed the mess to happen and ask the people to trust him to fix things. A mea culpa will improve credibility.
Then, BBM should move fast. instruct government prosecutors to follow the advice of Kim Henares to pick the low hanging fruits right away.
‘Tingin ko yung ghost projects madaling file-an ng kaso kasi lahat yan documentation lang. Mayroong bidding, may award ka, may binayaran ka, puntahan mo yung project, wala kang nakita, yan ang kaso. Wala ka nang kailangang ibang ebidensya. Puede nang i-file yan.’
Oo nga naman. What could be simpler? And the ball gets tossed to the Sandiganbayan. Because these cases look like open and shut cases, continuous hearing of a week may get guilty verdicts. And the first set of culprits, DPWH district engineers and contractors, march off to jail.
Substandard projects may require expert testimony or maybe not. Most of these substandard projects are obviously damaged and that’s proof enough of the crime committed. More district engineers and more contractors can be jailed quickly.
Jailing the district engineers and some contractors will buy BBM some time. What will test BBM’s sincerity is how he deals with the political fat cats on top of the corruption value chain.
Principal suspects include his own cousin and the resigned congressman now apparently seeking refuge in Europe. Then there are the senators and more congressmen who made the insertions in the first place.
What is worrisome now is the possibility that BBM underestimates this seething anger over corruption. Politicians including BBM may think they are in the clear and even stop pretending to clean up. Then we lose the momentum in the fight against corruption.
The full-page ad expressing the collective sentiment of our business sector on the corruption scandal is welcome. But hopefully, they are not just riding the tide of public clamor for reforms. The responsibility of the business sector does not end with publishing that ad.
‘This wasn’t a PR move,’ Apa Ongpin of the Makati Business Club said. ‘Our members were crying out for a statement. They were emotionally appalled and kept telling us, ‘We have to say something.”
Say something! Of course, we all have to say something. But the business community should do more than saying something. Getting the bastards to jail is a complicated process that needs support beyond expressions of disgust.
There are things the business community can do to follow through.
The Ombudsman, the DOJ and DPWH need trained eyes, hands and feet to help them go through all those documents to strengthen the cases to be filed. Can all those organizations that signed the statement contribute to a fund to hire lawyers, engineers and accountants to help?
Don’t think bid rigging has ended because the rats at DPWH are laying low. Credible contractors should join biddings if only to keep the bastards honest.
It is no secret that big business contributes big money to politicians during campaign seasons. Can they please remember how badly they felt the past few weeks when the same politicians come to collect their expected contributions?
How about refusing to support any politician implicated in this corruption mess? There are some business risks in denying politicians who think such donations are their birthright. But it is hypocritical for business to denounce corruption today and go on financially supporting corrupt politicians.
Given the nationwide network of all the corporations behind the organizations that signed that manifesto, can they organize monitoring teams to check on public works projects in their areas? Catch ghost projects early.
Get the professional associations of engineers, accountants, lawyers, doctors, etc. to throw out of their organizations those involved in corruption cases. Work with the PRC to revoke the licenses.
Make it socially undesirable to be seen living the high life financed by stolen funds from the national treasury.
Nine years of darkness, most likely more, is upon us. We must move as one to stop this madness. Let everyone drill that in everyone’s head.