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Every time a scandal erupts, the script is predictable. A few names are shamed. Politicians promise to punish them. Pundits say we need more ‘good men’ in the government.

And now, the techno-optimists add their fix: blockchain, artificial intelligence, some app that will supposedly reduce, if not vanish, corruption.

It is fast and easy to think the problem is the basket of bad apples or outdated tools. But the real story is harsher: corruption survives because the system makes it cheaper than honesty. Until that changes, scandals like the flood control fiasco will keep overflowing.

Economists use the term transaction cost to define the hidden costs of getting things done. In normal systems, these costs are low: contracts are straightforward; enforcement is reliable; and cheating is costly.

In ours, they are upside down. The costs of doing things honestly are higher than the costs of corruption.

Look at the flood control. An honest contractor leaps through the hoops of paperwork, competitive bids, compliance checks and inspections. A connected contractor can skip the line with a handshake and an envelope.

Who pays more? The honest one.

Tech alone isn’t the answer

Even after the project is awarded, the distortion remains. Compliant firms bear costs; shady firms cut corners, knowing penalties are unlikely.

Honesty stays expensive. Cheating stays cheap.

This is why preaching ethics alone fails. Good men can try, but they are swimming against a current of warped incentives. The rules of the game reward shortcuts and punish compliance. Eventually, the system wins.

And this is also why technology, on its own, will not save us. Blockchain is a perfect example. It promises tamper-proof records of every contract. But if corrupt officials enter lies, the system faithfully preserves lies in digital stone.

If regulators ignore the evidence, the blockchain becomes nothing more than a high-tech archive of unpunished fraud.

Tools can help, but they do not change the rules. The rules decide the costs, and right now, corruption is the low-cost choice.

Changing the game

Individuals exploit the government because it commands vast resources and discretionary power, making it a tempting target for private gain. When rules are weak or enforcement is lax, the transaction costs of corruption are low compared to the costs of acting honestly. This creates incentives for rent-seeking, collusion and capture of public funds.

To prevent this, society must design the proper ‘rules of the game’ that make integrity the cheaper, safer path and corruption the costlier gamble. This makes the government extractive.

If we want change, we must then flip the equation. Make honesty cheap, and corruption costly.

That means lowering the cost of transparency. Every contract, bid and project update should be easy to verify-geotagged, photographed and online for all to see.

Ghost projects only survive in the dark.

Furthermore, it means shifting the cost of enforcement. Do not just pay contractors for ‘finishing work.’ Tie their pay to actual outcomes, such as less flooding in specific areas. Make them shoulder the cost of proving tangible results, not taxpayers.

It means raising the cost of corruption. Apart from digital audit trails, whistleblower protections and swift penalties, make the gamble riskier. If the chance of getting caught is high, corruption becomes expensive.

And it means cutting the cost of accountability. Residents who live beside canals and flood walls know if the work exists. Empower them, not local officials who can be bribed, to report directly into oversight systems. Communities are the cheapest and sharpest monitors the government has.

System overhaul

Finally, redesign the system itself. Endless small contracts mean endless chances for collusion. Shift to longer-term deals with firms that build track records, overseen by independent audits. Fewer transactions mean fewer opportunities to cheat.

The flood control scandal is not about billions lost. It is about a government trapped in a high-cost system where honest service is punished and rent-seeking rewarded.

Corruption is not a software bug we can code away, nor a moral failing we can pray over. It is a transaction-cost problem.

If corruption is the cheaper option, no blockchain, no saintly official and no shiny app will stop the flood.

Real reform begins when honesty is the low-cost choice and corruption is the most expensive mistake one can make. INQ

The University of the Philippines Los Baños celebrates its 107th Loyalty Day and Alumni Homecoming this week, which kicked off with the annual alumni parade last Sunday, bringing back hundreds of the university’s alumni to their old haunts on the UPLB campus. Among the things that would have easily caught the visitor’s eyes are several shells of buildings and major constructions that have remained unfinished for years. These include a planned new university library and knowledge center that was started five years ago and remains a raw concrete shell to this date; the economic development studies building of the College of Economics and Management (CEM), which broke ground in January 2023 and also remains a bare concrete shell; the graduate school dormitory, which appears nearly finished but has remained idle and unused, years after construction began; the long-standing excavation of the university track and field grounds, which has been fenced off from public view for years; and still more around campus.

What these unfinished buildings and constructions have in common, we’re told, is that they are all being implemented by the now-infamous Department of Public Works and Highways. Meanwhile, UPLB recently had a groundbreaking and soft launch of a student coop dormitory, and Chancellor Jose V. Camacho Jr. is quick to add that this project is not being done by the DPWH, as if to reassure us that the project will be done on time and done right. It makes one’s blood boil to see great losses from construction stoppages of UPLB buildings (and many similar DPWH projects nationwide), yet for many years, so many ghost and substandard flood control projects have been quickly certified for full payment.

Why has this experience with unfinished buildings been all too common, including and especially in UP, a government institution by virtue of its being the premier state university? There are several reasons. At the outset, fragmented project ownership and accountability, where the end-user (UPLB) and the implementing agency (DPWH) are two different entities, lead to coordination breakdowns, especially when there are design changes, site issues, or procurement delays. UPLB cannot directly fix implementation issues or rebid the project because the budget and contract are with DPWH, which seems to feel no urgency to push for prompt project completion, especially when it’s outside its own premises or political priorities.

Commission on Audit (COA) reports give us other reasons. All too common and persistent are problems with the contractor abandoning a project when costs escalate, or at worst, when there is bad faith to begin with. Contractors commonly bid very low to win contracts, expecting to argue for increases once underway, and then walk away when the desired increases are not granted. Replacing defaulting contractors is a tedious process that can take DPWH years. By the time rebidding happens, prices would have risen and the appropriated budget is no longer sufficient, leading to indefinite suspension.

Procurement and auditing bottlenecks also arise from actions of COA itself, such as when minor contract variations or additional works require COA clearance and DBM fund releases, often taking months. The DPWH has also been reported to have frozen project disbursements when COA flagged procedural lapses, wary of possible disallowances. Some projects have remained unfinished for years simply because of pending COA observations or contractor appeals, for which no clear resolution mechanisms to untangle stalemates exist.

And then there are discontinuities that arise from leadership changes and the realignment of political support and funding priorities. This arises when projects are started as congressional insertions or local realignments, which succeeding legislators or administrators may decide to abandon. At UPLB, the CEM building was initiated by a legislator who is among its alumni, but whose influence diminished when the political leadership changed. Budgets for other UPLB buildings were apparently reallocated to ‘priority infrastructure’ elsewhere, which could well have included spurious flood control projects. There have also been cases where DPWH’s school or office building specifications fail to meet UP’s higher construction standards (like for laboratories), leading UP engineers to refuse acceptance of the finished work, citing structural or functional deficiencies.

Long before the flood control scandal broke out, the DPWH had already earned for itself a bad name and had shown why other government entities like UP and many others ought to have the leeway to implement their infrastructure projects themselves. Why keep insisting that we all rely on a department that has proven itself unreliable, and worse, untrustworthy, for so long?

Filipino golf icon Miguel Tabuena is set to take on the world’s best golfers at International Series Philippines.

The event is the sixth of nine LIV Golf tournaments-all sanctioned by the Asian Tour-held across Asia and the Middle East. The tournaments offer the end-of-the-year rankings leader promotion to the LIV Golf League.

The Philippine leg will take place from Oct. 23 to 26 at the Sta. Elena Golf and Country Club, and will feature a world-class field of golf legends and major champions such as Dustin Johnson, Bubba Watson, Patrick Reed, Charles Schwartzel, and Louis Oosthuizen.

Tabuena is currently 48th in the overall rankings. Tabuena has previously won multiple Philippine Golf Tour titles, including two Asian Tour victories, and even represented the country in the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics. He also won the Idaho Open in 2021 against PGA Tour player Brad Marek.

‘The international series is something I really plan my schedule around so I can peak at the right time for these events. I call it the ‘majors’ of the Asian tour,’ says Tabuena ahead of the upcoming tournament.

The Commission on Appointments (CA) on Tuesday deferred the appointment of retired Associate Justice Jose Catral Mendoza as a member of the Judicial and Bar Council (JBC).

Sen. Imee Marcos was the first to raise objections during the CA hearing on Mendoza’s appointment, saying she could not support the retired associate justice due to his ‘lack of responsive and adequate answers’ when questioned by lawmakers.

‘I am deeply disturbed [and] alarmed by the responses of justice Mendoza to the questions of the chair, of Congressman Garbin, of Senator Villanueva, and those of myself, casting doubt on the probity and independence of the JBC. At this juncture, I am unable – without further clarification and more responsive and adequate answers from the justice-to support the appointment of Justice Mendoza. I am sorry,’ said Marcos.

In a separate ambush interview also on Tuesday, Marcos herself said she asked the committee to defer the confirmation of Mendoza, citing what she described as ever-changing rules in the JBC.

Later, Sen. Rodante Marcoleta’s office confirmed that Mendoza’s appointment was deferred.

Meanwhile, the CA approved the nomination and ad interim appointment of the following officials of the Department of Foreign Affairs:

Noralyn Jubaira Baja

Charmaine Rowena Caoile Aviquil

Myla Grace Ragen Catalbas Macahilig

Miguel Carlo Narzo Hornilla

Paolo Marco Recio Mapula

President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has emphasized that the erring actions of a few public servants do not reflect the integrity of the entire government.

In Part 2 of Episode 5 of the BBM Podcast released on Tuesday, Marcos expressed frustration over how the government is being painted in a negative light because of the wrongdoings of a few.

‘You cannot paint everyone in government with the same brush as all of these corrupt operators that you see in government,’ he said.

Marcos emphasized that many government employees are making serious sacrifices-such as spending time away from their families and even using their own money-in the name of public service.

‘I have always said, there are so many people in government who are very good, who are dedicated, who make sacrifices, who give everything that they can to their-to their service,’ he said.

‘Everyone needs the money. But most government workers would rather just be able to do the work and actually serve. That’s why they’re there,’ he also said.

Congress is currently investigating massive corruption in the government infrastructure projects.

Marcos has also formed an Independent Commission for Infrastructure, composed of three members, along with a special adviser and investigator, to conduct an independent probe into these anomalies

A man was arrested for allegedly sexually abusing four minors in South Cotabato, the Philippine National Police Women and Children’s Protection Center (PNP WCPC) said Tuesday.

The arrest came after a tip to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children prompted the police to search the suspect’s home in Banga town last Friday, the WCPC said in a statement.

‘The authorities seized the suspect’s device, where a forensic examination revealed multiple files containing CSAEM (child sexual abuse and exploitation materials),’ the police explained.

The WCPC did not name the arrested suspect but, in a message to the Inquirer, described him as a 25-year-old South Cotabato resident.

Four male minors were also supposedly found in the suspect’s home and turned over to the Banga town social welfare and development office, the police added, without saying how the victims were taken to the residence.

The suspect was taken into custody of the local police and is facing charges for violation of Republic Act No. 11930 or the Anti-Online Sexual Abuse or Exploitation of Children and the Anti-Child Sexual Abuse or Exploitation Materials Act.

Kris Lawrence expressed his love for his daughter Katie in his new single ‘Nobody,’ whom he credited as the reason why he was able to recover from his creative slump.

‘Nobody,’ which was done in collaboration with ‘Britain’s Got Talent’ alum Lil Eddie and Nico Blitz, was the first song Lawrence wrote in five years, which allowed him to get in touch with his affectionate side. The song will be released on October 10.

‘It was the first song I wrote in five years. When I was in the studio in L.A., I had writer’s block kaagad. I felt rusty,’ he said in a press statement. ‘I needed inspiration, so I thought about Katie and how she makes me feel. Right away, my pen wouldn’t stop. I wrote the song in 1.5 hours. Yes, it’s definitely about her.’

Reflecting on his decades-long career, Lawrence said one of the greatest lessons he learned as a songwriter was ‘expressing what’s real’ instead of impressing others.

‘When I was younger, it was all about proving myself, showing what I could do with melodies and runs. Over the years, I’ve realized that it’s less about impressing people and more about expressing what’s real,’ he said.

‘My songs now come from lived experiences – from love, fatherhood, faith, even pain – and I feel that makes them resonate deeper. I’m still evolving, but I’m grateful that my journey has allowed me to find more authenticity in my music,’ he continued.

While the singer-songwriter is aware of how the music scene has changed, Lawrence pointed out that live shows will always remain a crucial part of the industry’s success. ‘Before, it was all about radio and mall tours, and those were fun because you’d really feel the crowd’s energy in person. Now, a big part of it is digital: streaming platforms, social media, and creating content that connects with listeners wherever they are.’

‘But I don’t think live shows will ever disappear. Nothing replaces that human connection. So, for me, it’s about balance,’ he continued. ‘Reaching people online while still giving them moments face-to-face where the music feels alive.’

Starting his career as a member of the singing group First Impression in 1998, Lawrence gained prominence after winning ‘Search for the Star in a Million’ in 2006.

The singer is best known for the songs ‘Kung Malaya Lang Ako’ and his rendition of ‘When I See You Smile.’ /edv

All public school teachers in the country will receive their mandated P1,000 incentive as part of the double celebration of National and World Teachers’ Day.

In his speech in Pasay City on Monday, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. said the P1,000 incentive, which has been in place since 2019, was ‘a little reminder that we recognize your efforts and your sacrifices, and they have not gone unrecognized.’

The President also vowed greater investments in the education system in teachers and learners, while ordering agencies to accelerate classroom-building efforts nationwide.

The P1,000 annual World Teacher’s Day incentive benefit has been implemented since 2019 and funded under the General Appropriations Act.

Guiding hands

A P955-million allocation is provided for this incentive for the more than 950,000 public school teachers under the 2025 national budget.

Addressing teachers, Marcos said: ‘We offer you our respect, our deepest gratitude for shaping minds, touching hearts, and in your way building a nation that we can be proud of one student at a time.’

‘You are the guiding hands, and in your hands our nation’s progress is held. In your strength, in your wisdom, and in your courage, we find the assurance that our future is secure,’ he added.

According to the President, ‘the true success of education lies not only in the intelligence of our youth but also in their goodness and moral conviction. For intelligence without integrity is meaningless, but goodness and wisdom-these will uphold our New Philippines.’

Increased funding

Marcos also described teaching as a ‘partnership-between teachers and learners, between generations, between those who dream and those who make dreams possible. And it is in this collaboration that the strength of our nation is built.’

The President cited some of his administration’s initiatives to support teachers, such as the signing of the Kabalikat sa Pagtuturo Act, which provides teachers with P10,000 to help cover classroom needs, and the issuance of Department of Education (DepEd) Order No. 005, which ensures fair teaching loads.

According to the President, the government has allocated P26.55 billion from canceled flood control funds to be added to the 2026 proposed budget of DepEd, originally pegged at P928.5 billion.

DepEd received the largest allocation among all agencies, representing 13.7 percent of the P6.793-trillion proposed national budget for 2026.

‘These funds will be directed to increase funding for classrooms, child nutrition, teacher compensation, and technology in schools. Because we believe that education is the best investment that any nation can make in its people,’ said Marcos.

Clear goal

Speaking at the Philippine Development Forum 2025 in Mandaluyong City, the President also called on government agencies to prioritize projects and initiatives related to education.

‘The goal is clear: a Philippines where every child-regardless of background or circumstance-has access to quality, future-proof education,’ he said.

For this, Marcos urged the Department of Economy, Planning, and Development (DepDev), the Department of Budget and Management, the Department of Finance, and all concerned government agencies to ensure that education is given adequate funding and support.

‘To the DPWH (Department of Public Works and Highways) and the DepEd: Speed up the planning and implementation process so we can meet our target of building and rehabilitating thousands of classrooms by 2028,’ he said.

‘And to the DepDev: accelerate the review of PPP proposals for school buildings,’ he added.

The President further stressed, ‘No child should be forced to learn in makeshift spaces, and no teacher should be burdened by a system that does not support them.’

World Teachers’ Day, celebrated every October 5 since 1994 by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, honors the vital role of teachers in shaping societies. In the Philippines, Republic Act No. 10743 declared October 5 as National Teachers’ Day.

It is easy to see the floodwaters. But what’s harder to grasp is what we’re drowning in.

This year alone, the Philippines has again faced the brutal cycles of flooding, storm surges, landslides, and typhoons-each leaving a familiar trail: lost lives, wrecked homes, halted schooling, destroyed crops, disease outbreaks, broken roads, and ruined futures.

But there’s a deeper flood now-a moral and institutional deluge. The top branches of government are cracking under the weight of scandal. The executive, legislative, and judicial arms are now perceived by many not as saviors from disaster, but as syndicates of self-dealing and plunder. Even our fiscal watchdogs, tasked with guarding public funds, have been accused of complicity. It’s no surprise that public trust is hemorrhaging.

Against this backdrop, the country’s long-standing struggle for flood control and climate resilience seems to vanish into the background. Dikes, river dredging, slope protections-these were always expensive, often fragmented, and frequently ineffective. But at least they were tangible. Now, even these are paused, as outrage redirects our collective energy to governance failure, impunity, and the looming threat of civil disorder.

It’s tempting to think we can only deal with one crisis at a time. But this is a dangerous illusion. If we lose sight of the strategic, long-term solutions to our recurring flooding nightmare, we may trade today’s rage for tomorrow’s ruin.

From eight years of working with LGUs and communities in the flood-battered towns in Pampanga, Bulacan, and Tarlac, we at Future Earth Philippines have learned one powerful truth: resilience is not just about hardware-it’s about systems, culture, and commitment. Here are five long-view solution pathways that deserve renewed attention:

1. Establish a regional flood and drainage strategy and plan. Most flood interventions are patchwork at best, contradictory at worst. Dredging in one town is negated by garbage clogging canals in another. The absence of a regional, science-based, long-horizon plan wastes money and increases risk.

Such a strategy could unify fragmented efforts-from slope protection to resettlement-and create a framework that connects local knowledge, hazard data, and inter-municipal coordination. It’s not just technical-it’s political and moral. It tells citizens: we’re thinking beyond the next term.

2. Rehabilitate and govern watersheds as natural flood barriers. Floods don’t start in the streets. They start in the uplands, in denuded forests, in silt-heavy rivers, and in the loss of mangroves along the coast. The lahar scars of Mount Pinatubo still bleed into lowland towns.

Restoring watersheds requires scientific cooperation, local land-use reforms, and livelihood alternatives for upland dwellers. It delivers not only flood prevention but also biodiversity gains, climate adaptation, and rural jobs. It’s a strategy rooted in nature’s logic-not political cycles.

3. Resettle and transform flood-prone communities humanely. Many families live where no one should. But resettlement is often done without dignity or strategy-dumping people in far-flung, unlivable sites with no livelihood or infrastructure.

What we need are in-town or clustered resettlement models-consultative, connected, and climate-smart. These should be supported by real urban planning and services. Resettlement isn’t abandonment-it can be an act of collective courage.

4. Build citizen organizations and local response systems. People’s capacity to respond to disasters is often ignored. Yet in our fieldwork, barangay captains, youth groups, fisherfolk, and mothers consistently provided the most durable insights.

Citizen monitoring of environmental law enforcement, solid waste practices, and local planning not only improves outcomes-it fosters ownership and pressure for accountability. Resilience must stop being a top-down project and become a neighborhood ethic.

5. Cultivate public understanding and collective commitment. This may be the deepest reform of all. Most people do not understand why flooding persists-how ground subsidence, geophysical shifts, unregulated groundwater extraction, and policy incoherence make solutions elusive.

We need national campaigns, not just on evacuation or cleanup, but on understanding complex causes and on mobilizing multi-stakeholder commitment. If citizens and officials see the deeper roots, they’ll resist superficial fixes and demand durable change.

The danger today is not just that we delay action. It’s that in our fury at government failure, we abandon the pursuit of transformation altogether. That we forget that it’s not just the government that must act-but every sector, every discipline, every community. Let us remind ourselves and one another: when governance fails, citizen coalitions must rise. In the shadows of Pinatubo and the floodplains of history, we can still build higher ground-together.

The country is exhausted – and rightly so. Months into the exposé of massive flood-controlirregularities, the public watched a grotesque theater of political sparring, procedural foot-dragging and institutional buck-passing while clear leads and documentary evidence cry out fordecisive action.

The Senate Blue Ribbon hearings have degenerated into a partisan arena where feuding blocsand influence-peddling overshadowed the purpose of the inquiry: accountability. Reports thatmany senators have ‘insertions’ in the 2025 GAA and political characters who are more intenton scoring partisan points than the truth have only deepened public anger. The House,meanwhile, has suspended its probe and deferred to the Independent Commission forInfrastructure (ICI) – an agency whose secretive, glacial approach to investigating thesescandals has only fueled suspicions and confusion.

In this toxic stew of political self-interests, only DPWH Secretary Vince Dizon’s actions stoodout as the kind of unambiguous, no-nonsense leadership our nation sorely needs. He zeroed in on the root of the alleged scams: the Bulacan First Engineering District (DEO), which, according to their admissions and COA fraud audits, produced more than 50 ghost flood control projects valued at P4-P5 billion. The COA audits and internal DPWH reviews – not mere gossip – identified a systematic factory of fake project documents and processed fund disbursements that converted fraudulent paperwork into real cash. The operation involved its district officers, section chiefs, project engineers, accountants and private contractors in an organized pattern of malversation and bid manipulation.

Dizon’s response was swift and surgical: criminal complaints and administrative cases against 22 DPWH first Bulacan DEO were filed with the Ombudsman, three were administratively dismissed and more than 16 were under preventive suspension. Formal requests for the permanent revocation of their professional licenses were submitted before the PRC.

The Anti-Money Laundering Council upon request of Dizon froze the assets of these DPWH personnel together with five contractors and their companies. The Court of Appeals approved asset-freeze requests against an initial 147 bank accounts and 27 insurance policies.

Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) Central is now looking at violations of the new Anti- Financial Account Scamming Act (AFASA) on the so called ‘money-muling’ or the use of financial accounts to move funds known to come from crimes. Under AFASA, bank secrecy and data privacy rules are waived, enabling faster action without a court order.

Apart from blacklisting, cases of bid rigging and bid manipulation against the Discaya-owned companies and five other contractors were submitted to the Philippine Competition Commission. The Discaya companies cornered 1,214 DPWH contracts since 2016 and if proven guilty may be fined more than P300 billion. Further, 27 of the Discayas’ luxury cars worth P200 million were taken by the Bureau of Customs for investigation of possible tax evasion.

Dizon’s coordinated use of administrative, criminal, regulatory and financial tools – from Customs, PRC, Ombudsman complaints, AMLC requests to PCC bid-rigging cases – demonstrates a comprehensive understanding of how modern corruption operates and how it must be countered. It is clearly a playbook of real governance: follow the paper trail, use the law, move fast, and isolate the bad actors so they cannot tamper with evidence or continue to loot the public coffers.

What happened in Bulacan is a highly organized syndicate which exploited the mechanics of budget allocation – GAA allotments, NEP entries, unprogrammed funds and SAROs – in collusion with corrupt senators, congressmen , public officers and private contractors. The sums and the network are staggering. But the work is far from done. For all the bold steps taken in Bulacan, the obvious and urgent questions remain unanswered and demand a national response:

Is Bulacan First Engineering District the only district among DPWH’s 177 DEOs where ghost orsubstandard flood-control projects were produced? Or is it merely the first to be exposed?Are Usec Bernardo and ARD Henry Alcantara the real masterminds of the factory of fakeprojects, both during 2019 under PRRD’s time and today under PBBM’s watch? Who were theirbosses in PRRD’s time? Is Sec. Bonoan directly involved in the ghost project? Who supplied the funding streams inside the DPWH Central? Who signed off the dubious SAROs inside DBM? Which Senators, congressmen or higher-level officials, from Duterte and PBBM’s administrations, actively facilitated this syndicate or deliberately turned a blind eye?

These are questions the Ombudsman, COA, AMLC, PCC, and the judiciary must pursue withunrelenting vigor – not selective outrage.

The Filipino people are not asking for vengeance; they are demanding justice, transparency, andthe restoration of trust in public service. But the slow-paced Department of Justice and thesecretive Independent Committee on Infrastructure are failing in this regard.

We are awaiting the filing of plunder charges, subsequent conviction and jailing these corruptDPWH officers and contractors who openly admitted their guilt. Include in the plunder casestheir political enablers regardless of who they are, senators, congressmen or Cabinet rankmembers.

Let us be clear: those who looted flood-control funds stole more than money. They stole safety,livelihoods and the public’s right to live without constant fear of preventable disasters. If we are to honor the victims of floods and the rule of law, the investigations must go all the way to thetop. No excuses. No theatrics. No immunity for the powerful.Historic failure: How this Senate and House broke public trust

The Filipino people are furious. What is playing out in Congress is very embarrassing. The House of Representatives has more than 70 ‘cong-tractors’ who feed on the national budget yearly for their further enrichment. In the Senate, routine politicking abounds and it is a travesty of accountability and a national disgrace. We see our elected senators and congressmen more consumed with protecting privileges and jockeying for power than getting to the bottom of this corruption scheme.

This Senate, for instance, will be remembered for its theatrics, its backroom horse-trading, and itswillingness to treat investigations as bargaining chips. Sen. Panfilo ‘Ping’ Lacson’s announcement that he may step down as Blue Ribbon chair – after delivering some of the most consequential testimonies and documentary leads – lays bare the deeper problem: committee leadership in the Senate is hostage to political whim, not fidelity to the public interest.

Let us be blunt.

If Lacson’s claim that ‘almost all senators have insertions’ in the 2025 budget is true, then the Senate has turned the national budget into a buffet of patronage. When legislators stand to benefit directly from the very appropriations they are supposed to scrutinize, oversight becomes a mockery. When committee chairs are changed because colleagues are ‘dissatisfied’ with hard-hitting investigations, the message is clear: pursue the evidence at your peril.

The stakes are enormous and immediate. The Blue Ribbon Committee holds the keys to truth -and possibly to prosecutions – in matters that implicate senators, congressmen, contractors, andexecutive officials. Yet leadership posturing threatens to derail inquiries into all ghost andsubstandard projects, bid-rigging, and the flow of SAROs, NEP entries, and GAA insertions thatenabled these massive heist.

The arithmetic is simple and corrosive: 15 votes make or break the Senate’s agenda. Its members do not defect for ideology; they defect for promises – committee chairmanships, pork allocations, political favors. That dynamic explains why investigations that should be relentless, but are instead stalled, get postponed, or die on a caucus floor.

Enough.

The public deserves more than procedural theater. We demand institutions that work independently of partisan calculations: a Blue Ribbon Committee that follows evidence rather than political convenience; an independent prosecution that moves beyond grandstanding; a full and public accounting of budget insertions, SAROs and NEP routings; and forensic audits.

To the senators who keep mum or whose votes can change the course of investigations: you are not above scrutiny. If you have legitimate budget priorities, put them on the record and defend them transparently. If you have no credible defense, stop hiding behind ‘procedural’ excuses. The people see through your posturing.

To the Blue Ribbon Committee and leadership: step up or step aside. If the committee is to have any integrity left, it must refuse backroom bargains that protect implicated colleagues; make hearings and evidence as public as legally permissible; coordinate with the Ombudsman, COA, AMLC and the DOJ to push prosecutions and asset freezes without delay.