“The youth, working with mass movements, can bring down the rotten walls of corruption”
Henry Alcantara, a former district engineer of the Department of Public Works and Highways, has shaken the political establishment with his testimony before the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee.
Senators Jinggoy Estrada, Joel Villanueva, Bong Revilla Jr., and Rep. Zaldy Co were among those he alleged received kickbacks, some as high as 25 percent of project funds.
The scandal shows how the national budget, meant for public service, can be twisted into a private racket. Worse, money was diverted from health, transport, and education into ghost or substandard projects designed to be looted.
In the Philippines, public office has become a private trust, and that is what must change.
The urgency grows as the Investigative Commission on Infrastructure prepares to release more disclosures. Its findings are expected to reveal corruption even broader and deeper than Alcantara’s affidavit alone suggests
Davao City, Ilocos Norte, and the Bicol region should be prioritized for investigation next, but no city or province must be spared.
Accountability must reach the top of the DPWH and Congress.
Former secretary Mark Villar approved many of these projects, and former secretary Manuel Bonoan is accountable for those carried out under the Marcos administration.
Former Speaker Martin Romualdez and Senate President Francis Escudero must also be targeted for investigation.
President Marcos himself has said he is willing to be questioned by the ICI.
Alcantara’s testimony is not a verdict. It is a detonator. Whether it triggers accountability or fizzles into another forgotten scandal depends on how institutions respond and how citizens demand action.
A Last Quarter Storm is coming, political not meteorological, though we will see plenty of typhoons as well. Like the First Quarter Storm of 1970, it will be intense, and whether intended or not, it may lead to clashes like those already seen in Mendiola last Sunday.
The question is what our desired outcomes from these protests are.
Criminal prosecution is of course necessary. Budget and procurement reforms are also critical. Yet we have gone down that road before, only to see the cycle repeat.
Three deeper reforms are essential.
The first is the long-delayed implementation of the Constitutional ban on political dynasties.
A real anti-dynasty law must bar close relatives, up to the fourth degree of consanguinity or affinity, from simultaneously or successively holding elective office, whether local or national.
Only such a measure can break the monopoly of families who treat public office as private inheritance.
The second is the passage of a strict conflict-of-interest and asset disclosure law.
Current laws are riddled with loopholes and weak enforcement.
A new law must require real-time online disclosure of SALNs, contracts, and beneficial ownership records. It must also address how dummies are used to evade divestment rules, a favorite tactic of corrupt politicians.
The third is an anti-oligarchy law to prevent regulatory capture.
In the Philippines, politically connected tycoons and conglomerates often shape the bidding process, influence appointments, and rewrite regulations in their favor.
Some of these oligarchs even fund their own political parties and have their tentacles all over the legislative, executive, and some say even judicial branches.
Left unchecked, regulatory capture institutionalizes corruption by turning public agencies into tools of the powerful. They are also a cause of inequality and development aggression.
These new laws cannot be left to dynasties or oligarchs to design, for they will weaken them from the start.
They must be drafted by citizens themselves, assisted by development and social change lawyers who can frame airtight provisions and close every loophole.
Protests must therefore focus on the very centers of power.
Congress and the President must be compelled to act, even if it is against their self-interest and the interests of their families.
Tens of thousands of citizens must peacefully surround the House of Representatives, the Senate, and Malacañang in that order until lawmakers and the President enact the laws the nation demands.
Only relentless pressure will force institutions captured by dynasties and oligarchs to legislate against themselves.
Only the youth can lead this struggle.
It is the young who have had the courage to go where others will not, to press forward when fear or fatigue overwhelms their elders.
It is the youth, including those who stood in Mendiola last Sunday, who can carry this movement to its end.
The youth, working with mass movements, can bring down the rotten walls of corruption and build in their place a government that protects the people and secures the future of this country. Facebook, X, Instagram, and BlueSky: tonylavs Website: tonylavina.com
