The shift in primary public attention away from the flood control projects scandal is only temporary.
The advice that a seasoned public relations (PR) practitioner almost always gives a crisis-hit client is to just sit tight and wait for the crisis to be removed from the newspaper headlines and televisions news programs by subsequent crisis.
That, almost certainly, is the piece of advice that the administration of President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. and the recent and current leaders of Congress have been getting from their PR counsellors with regard to the flood control projects scandal. Just be patient, the PR folks must have been telling them, and other crises will in time capture the attention of the Filipino people and bring about a reduction in the intensity of their anger.
Since the date of the occasion that brought the flood control projects scandal to the nation’s consciousness – President Marcos’ 2025 State of the Nation Address – two major events have taken place that almost certainly have tended to validate the PR counsellors’ advice. One is the restarting of the effort to impeach and place on trial Vice-President Sara Duterte. The other event is the economic turmoil brought about by the closure of the Strait of Hormuz in the wake of the U.S.’s attack against Iran.
The waves of speculation preceding the filing of fresh Articles of Impeachment against the Vice-President and the subsequent House of Representatives hearings that have followed the filing definitely have elicited keen interest from Filipinos who believe that the nation’s No. 2 official should finally be brought to accountability. The legal skirmishing that has attended the current effort to remove Sara Duterte from office—with all its implications for the 2028 Presidential election—have caused the people of this county to intermittently their attention to the Congressional goings-on against the Vice-President.
The second, more recent diverter of public attention away from the flood control projects scandal—the Middle East conflict – has the potential for causing a great deal of harm to the economy of this country. The possibility of a drying up of this country’s oil supply , the likely sharp rise in inflation and the heavy toll it will take on the government’s fiscal resources has caused the Filipino people to give less thought to the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) officials, the Discaya couple and other contractors and the Senators and Representatives who conspired to bring about the biggest scandal in the history of the Philippine government.
But the shift in primary public attention away from the flood control projects scandal is only temporary. The Filipino people have been distracted momentarily. The scandal has all along been in their minds and it will stay there until justice has been fully served, which will happen when every accountable person—including the big fish—have been charged and appropriately penalized.
The title of this column speaks of a mistake that is likely being made by Malacanang and the current and recent leaders of the two chambers of Congress. The mistake lies in believing that the Filipino people, distracted by other negative events, have ceased to be interested in the outcome of the flood control projects scandal and that the scandal’s perpetrators are now out of the woods.
The scandal’s perpetrators will never be out of the woods. The people of this country will see to that. The Catholic Church, civil society, the business community, the professionals, even retired military personnel—these and other groups have indicated that they will not stop their effort to hold accountable all the perpetrators—big and small—of the biggest heist against the government in the history of this country.
To think otherwise will be the gravest mistake the perpetrators will make.
(llagasjessa@yahoo.com).
