BEYOND doubt, the people’s indignation over what they perceive as the dawdling moves of officials in resolving corruption in all levels of governance is steadily rising.
We have seen too that the contractor couple Curlee and Sarah Discaya, who had been initially reported as wanting to turn state witness, have announced they will no longer cooperate with the three-member Independent Commission for Infrastructure or ICI.
The ICI, created by President Ferdinand Marcos via an executive order, would operate independently and would not include politicians, as its investigation is primarily technical in nature.
It functions as the administration’s “investigative arm” tasked with reviewing tips and complaints related to flood control and infrastructure projects, discovered and made public after the President’s fourth State of the Nation Address on July 28, and soon after the President saw the existence of fully funded projects but turned out to be ghosts when Bulacan and other areas were whacked by severe typhoons and uncontrollable floodwaters.
Immediate investigations uncovered aberrant transactions involving government engineers and other officials of the Department of Public Works and Highways, other government agencies where some officials implicated are on compensated wages, and private contractors who were in cahoots with legislators making unprogrammed insertions in the national budget.
Two of these private contractors, the Discaya couple, initially were reported to want to be under the government’s Witness Protection Program, which provides security and benefits to individuals who have witnessed or have knowledge of a crime, and are willing to testify in court or before an investigating authority.
But the Discaya couple have since invoked their right against self-incrimination and manifested they will no longer cooperate with the ICI.
Here comes Ombudsman Crispin Remulla, in television interviews heard nationwide, who suggested the Discaya couple might be holding back information to protect certain individuals in high government post
The 64-year-old Remulla, seen as reinventing the seven-year Constitutional post to which he was appointed by President Marcos this month, noted he did not see fear in the demeanor of the Discayas, the first in line spotted by the angered masses to have pocketed billions in anomalous transactions.
Remulla has suggested the couple may believe political considerations will shield them from the allegations, stressing they will only be treated as state witnesses if they fully disclose all relevant details.
And the echoes of the annoyed population shouting there should be no government protection without restitution continue to reverberate.
We agree.
