“Filipinos, stop accepting collateral-damage status. The canary has flown. The mine is yours to explode”
A 77-year-old man walks into a press conference carrying the corpse of his own credibility.
Rogelio “Babes” Singson, the last surviving adult in the Marcos anti-corruption cosplay, announces he is quitting the Independent Commission for Infrastructure because his blood pressure can no longer handle the hypocrisy.
Somewhere in the background, a suitcase bursts open and ₱100 billion in crisp bills rolls across the floor like confetti at a kleptocrat’s birthday party.
Happy retirement, Babes. The canary has left the coal mine. The gas is now officially free to kill the rest of us.
He spent his final weeks in office begging the commission to “focus on the top, not the small fry.”
Noble words, until you realize the top is the same palace that created the commission, pays its light bills, and can abolish it with one phone call.
The hunter cannot hunt the lion when the lion signs his paycheck. Singson did not resign because his heart gave out. He resigned because the top finally looked back at him and he recognized the face in the mirror.
Praise the logic for a moment: why chase clerks and district engineers when the real sharks swim in Malacañang and the Speaker’s mansion?
Now watch the logic collapse.
In this regime, “focusing on the top” is code for doing absolutely nothing, because the ICI has no subpoena power, no contempt power, no witness protection worth the paper it is printed on.
It is a commission of polite suggestions. Singson himself dismissed Zaldy Co’s suitcase videos as “hearsay” because the accuser refuses to appear in person.
Translation: focus on the top, but not THAT top.
And those “small fry” he calls collateral damage? They are Filipino engineers, contractors, ordinary taxpayers whose lives are ruined so the apex predators can buy another yacht.
Henry Alcantara exposed ₱300 million siphoned for a senator’s campaign; was he just collateral, Mr Singson, or the only one with guts?
Singson is no hero. He is the canary—decent, technocratic, ultimately loyal to his own survival.
He built a reputation on “Daang Matuwid” and ends it as the man who fled the coal mine before the gas finished him off.
Zaldy Co, the ghost accusing the vampire, is a plunderer turned whistleblower hiding abroad, dropping videos like grenades.
Credible? No.
Necessary? In this system, only the damned dare speak.
The ICI itself is a Potemkin village with Instagram backdrops and a forensic team that functions like a child’s toy gun—cute, harmless, strictly for show.
And the Marcos administration? The primary target, the family business rebooted with new branding but the same old appetite.
Denials today, suitcases tomorrow. This is not a scandal. This is the syllabus.
Follow the money; it is not difficult. Congress inserts billions.
DPWH awards ghost flood-control projects.
Contractors kick back 20–25 percent.
The cash returns in suitcases to fund the next election.
Rinse, spin, repeat.
The ICI was never meant to break the cycle; it was the washing machine designed to clean the reputation, not the crime.
The possible endings are grimly predictable. Best-case fantasy (0.1 percent chance): forensic accountants link the suitcases to the palace, prosecutions follow, unicorns dance in Intramuros.
Likely tragicomedy (70 percent): a few mid-level scalps, Senate hearings for the cameras, the public forgets by Holy Week.
Worst-case reality (already in progress): the commission limps on without Singson, Co is painted as a bitter liar, the apex predators feast again.
It is about greed. It is about power.
It is about a staggering contempt for the Filipino people who pay taxes so the powerful can deliver their loot in luggage while the rest of us drown in floods we ourselves funded.
So here is the challenge, not a polite recommendation: Legislators, pass the real anti-corruption law with teeth or admit you are part of the syndicate.
Mr President, open the ledgers, release the palace CCTV, or own the suitcases.
Filipinos, stop accepting collateral-damage status. The canary has flown. The mine is yours to explode.
Follow the evidence to the very top—or keep swimming in the flood you paid for.
