“Let’s hope that Congress is capable of sacrifice so that the nation can have a breather to be able to move forward”
THE “mahiya naman kayo” speech of PBBM triggered almost six months of continuous negative news that has severely damaged our international reputation and the nation needs a breather.
Judging from the people who have been issued arrest warrants and those already detained, the developing pattern is reminiscent of what we have witnessed before — that only the little Indians and the squad leaders are currently on the dock with no perceived masterminds identified or arrested so far.
To borrow a famous movie line, the usual suspects were the only ones arrested which will only prolong the melodrama.
A mastermind is generally understood to be the planner, leader and executioner of a complex enterprise which in this case is the stealing of hundreds of billions if not trillions of government funds from the national budget.
Zaldy Co appears to be that guy.
But although Co was the Finance Committee Chairman of the House which is admittedly important, there is still the Speaker of the House, Co’s counterpart in the Senate and then the Senate President, not to mention the so-called Bicam committee process.
Co, therefore, could not make things happen all by himself.
In the Executive Department, we have the DBM Secretary and intermediate high ranking officials before eventually reaching the President who finally approves the release of funds.
It is in short very complicated and one wonders why only those who have been issued arrest warrants are always the focus of the mainstream media in this never ending melodrama that has probably caused the country more harm in terms of its international reputation than all the money stolen by these corrupt government officials and their cohorts.
The contractors who were used by the DPWH to advance kickbacks to politicians never really learned a lesson from what happened to Janet Napoles, now serving life in jail with many more unresolved cases due to the PDAF scandal.
The same will almost certainly befall many of these contractors, middle level DPWH officials and some politicians who also never learned their lessons.
And with Senator Ping Lacson winding down his Senate Blue Ribbon investigation and some members of the ICI already gone or planning to resign, the investigations will now go to the Office of the Ombudsman which the public will almost certainly disapprove.
Whether the government planned this development or not, there might be a silver lining in this with media and the government refocusing their attention on other equally important issues that were sidelined due to the corruption scandal.
One is in geopolitics particularly the WPS issue which is not improving at all.
The other is the deteriorating economic condition of the country not only with regards to the falling value of the peso, decreasing economic growth and foreign direct investments.
And last but not the least, the government might want to turn its attention to repairing our badly damaged international reputation due to the prolonged negative news we have been getting.
2026 is after all just around the corner and the nation does need a break.
But many, particularly those belonging to cause-oriented groups, will almost certainly question the integrity of the investigation to be conducted by the Ombudsman as they are already.
They believe that the masterminds will again escape accountability and corruption will simply continue.
This is because Congress in its current 2026 budget deliberations is not helping dispel the notion that the budget will truly be pork free.
If only our Representatives and Senators will agree for once to sacrifice for just one year by removing any item in the 2026 budget that may give the appearance of pork like the medical help for indigents and farm to market roads, to satisfy public clamor, this might help appease public disenchantment and perhaps restore a little of their faith in government.
Unfortunately, the Palace is not helping either by saying these items are not pork.
Old habits really die hard.
Rampant political corruption can only stop if voters will stop selling their votes and elect candidates with honesty and integrity.
Otherwise, the only way to recoup political investments is to steal government funds and corruption will never stop.
Let’s hope that Congress is capable of sacrifice so that the nation can have a breather to be able to move forward.
