These two actions will not only render credible the President’s anti-corruption campaign; they will also help assure the fulfillment of his legacy.
The political branches of this government—the Executive Department and Congress—surely know that the Filipino people are deeply distrustful of their roles and actions in the flood-control projects scandal and have strong doubts that anything consequential will result from the inquiry being conducted by the Independent Commission on Infrastructure (ICI). They think that when the televised conferences and the media coverage are over, ICI will recommend the prosecution of a number of not-big-fish contractors and legislators, fold its tent and fade into history.
The Filipino people can hardly be blamed for thinking the way they do. In the past they have suffered numerous disappointments at the hands of Congress and the Executive Department.
Prior to the flood-control projects scandal there were the Pharmally Corporation fund transfer case, the alleged misuse of P612 million worth of Office of the Vice President (OVP) confidential funds and the Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) scam involving Janet Lim-Napoles and numerous legislators including three senators.
In the still-unresolved Pharmally case P42 billion worth of Department of Health (DOH) funds was illegally transferred to the Department of Budget and Management and unauthorizedly used by certain DBM officials. Vice-President Sara Duterte has yet to be held accountable for her alleged misuse of public funds. In the PDAF cases the mastermind of the entire scam – the person at the top of the evil pyramid – still has to be identified.
As a result of these and other previous fiscal malfeasances of Congress and the Executive Department, a trust deficit has developed between the citizenry and the government. Most Filipinos have ceased to trust the government’s willingness to pursue its investigations of fiscal scandals and to get to the bottom of cases of governmental corruption. This mindset applies to the proceedings of the ICI.
There is general agreement that the build-up of the flood-control projects mess over the years has been the result of the operations of the ‘third chamber of Congress’ – the small bicameral committee composed of a handful of members of the Senate and the House of Representatives. The facts show that this small group of legislators has been responsible for the insertion of unprogrammed projects into the National Expenditure Program (NEP) proposed by the administration. Because of their susceptibility to corruption. Most of the inserted projects have been flood control projects.
The Filipino people have for some time been signaling their disdain for a system of policymaking—especially fiscal policymaking—done by small groups of individuals working behind closed doors. The clamor for the livestreaming of the proceedings of the ICI and key Congressional committee is a manifestation of this disdain. Henceforth transparency is to be the preferred mode of conducting governmental operations; secrecy and backroom dealing will no longer be tolerated.
President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has gone to great lengths to try to convince Filipinos that the ICI will function as an honest-to-goodness anti-corruption institution and that it will arrive at its recommendations on a without-fear-or-favor basis. Most Filipinos remain unconvinced of his sincerity.
With less than three years of his term remaining, President Bongbong Marcos is bound to have begun thinking of his legacy. For this, he needs two things. One is the passage – at long last – of a Freedom of Information Act; The other is the repeal or at least the severe modification of the Bank Secrecy Act.
These two actions will not only render credible the President’s anti-corruption campaign; they will also help assure the fulfillment of his legacy.
(llagasjessa@yahoo.com)
