“The enemy of my enemy is my friend; the friend of my enemy is my enemy.’ – Ancient proverb
As expected, everything related to the DPWH ghost projects and corruption has turned into a free-for-all. As I wrote before, some individuals are not going to go quietly to prison or let themselves be thrown under the bus.
So now we can observe several people in Congress, the Senate, the executive body and DPWH making appearances and statements for or against each other and ‘the suspects and suspected’ in the DPWH fund and ghost projects scam.
In the public’s eye, they are all guilty directly, complicit or by omission but we have no details or evidence to back us up. For that it is worth paying attention to what all the ‘players’ are saying, connect the dots and you’ll discover the connection and confirm what used to be rumors or social media banter.
You will also learn that those who claim to be or appear to be are not so. Party-list groups received P150 million a year from DPWH even though they have no physical jurisdiction or constituency, said a DPWH official.
Those on the right played along or tolerated the political chess moves of Malacañang to remove VP Sara and, as a result, money poured into congressional districts.
Those in the Left who aligned with Martin to oust Sara are now behaving as anti-Marcos, perhaps to remind PBBM that if Martin goes, Bongbong goes. Some are openly implicating President Bongbong Marcos in the passing of the flawed 2025 budget.
Those who attacked Martin and Zaldy defended PBBM. Those who attacked PBBM were clearly aligned in the past with Martin and Zaldy during the ‘Impeach Sara’ campaign and the notorious distribution of ayuda tagged as ‘7-7-7-million’ to join the speaker’s caravan.
By and large, the general statements had a semblance of truth bordering on confession or admission of complicity, omission or alliance. More interesting is that the Left and the Right are ‘not clean and bright.’
After watching all the investigations concerning DPWH ghost projects, scams and suspected corruption in the legislative and executive branches of government, I was reminded of an old joke, as well as the movie of the late great Robert Redford.
Many authors and politicians have used the joke but historically speaking, the joke was apparently popular in saloons and bars from the gold rush to the roaring 20s onwards. The story goes:
‘During a lavish gathering of very rich individuals, a millionaire approached an attractive woman and asked: ‘Madame, if you were offered a million pounds, would you consider spending the weekend with me at my country estate and have sex?’
‘The woman was shocked and mortified by such a proposition but soon collected herself and replied that a million pounds was a substantial amount of money and that she might consider a tryst with the rich man.
‘After that, the rich man asked, ‘But what if I you were offered 500,000 pounds instead of a million, would you still consider the proposal?’ After some thought, the woman hesitated and replied, ‘Half a million pounds is still a fortune and perhaps worth considering.’
‘Intrigued, the rich man dared to go lower and asked the lady, ‘But what if the offer was only a thousand pounds for a weekend, would you still entertain my offer?’
‘The woman’s face turned red and fumed: ‘How dare you! What do you think I am, a prostitute?!!! The man replied: ‘Madam, we already settled that, we are merely deciding on the price.”
I hesitated to use that story but as I listened to the ongoing investigations regarding the DPWH ghost projects and ‘alleged’ corruption inside the legislative and executive branches of government, I believe the public has already settled or decided who the ‘prostitutes’ are.
The only thing people are squabbling about is who is the most guilty and how much did they get as the project proponent, contractor, sub-contractor and DPWH engineer.
Someone suggested that the investigators should not waste their time asking ‘the suspects and the suspected’ who is higher on the food chain of corruption. Or asking each respondent who else is involved and how much did they receive.
Instead, the investigators should just ask ‘WHO DID NOT RECEIVE MONEY?’ Or who had no dealings or association with the corruptors and the corrupted?
Those questions are less incriminating or damning for the doomed. Pressuring the respondents to name names and point out the guilty is certainly scary for contractors and DPWH personnel because it’s like signing your own death sentence.
They don’t want a target on their back, endanger their family or risk retaliation and therefore getting the truth out of them is like pulling teeth from a lion or a bear.
It is unfair to the remnant of innocent legislators and DPWH employees to be dragged and marked with suspicion without any opportunity to prove their innocence.
With everybody hunting down ‘the suspects and the suspected,’ chances are the innocents will languish under a cloud of suspicion and judgment for a very long time.
By providing a list of members of Congress, the Senate, past and present and asking ‘who did not receive any stolen money,’ the investigators can immediately shorten the list of persons of interest.