The proverb “the pot calling the kettle black” comes to mind whenever I hear about the current Senate investigation into flood control projects. It’s hard to ignore that Sen. Jinggoy Estrada was found guilty in connection with the Priority Development Assistance Fund scam linked to businesswoman Janet Lim Napoles. Shouldn’t that raise an eyebrow or two? Mine have been firmly stuck on the ceiling since this whole thing began.
In an ideal world, members of any investigative body should be beyond reproach to avoid undermining the credibility of the procedure. Sadly, that isn’t the case here.
Did you know that the top donor to Senate President Chiz Escudero’s campaign in the 2022 elections was the president of Centerways Construction and Development Inc.? This is the same firm named by President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. as one of the top 15 contractors, ranking seventh in the number of contracts awarded.
Even Sen. Bong Go couldn’t escape scrutiny after it was revealed that his family’s company has ties with the now-infamous contractor Sarah Discaya, whose penchant for luxury vehicles has become notorious. We’re not talking about loose change here. We’re talking about five infrastructure projects in the Davao Region totaling almost a billion pesos that CLTG Builders, owned by Go’s father, snagged in partnership with Discaya’s St. Gerrard Construction back in 2017, when former President Rodrigo Duterte was in power.
Of course, Go has denied any involvement in the family business and said he would support the government if it decided to pursue legal action against CLTG. But to ask the public to believe he never had any inkling would be asking too much, don’t you think? As they say, truth is stranger than fiction.
Heck, Michael Rama lost the mayoral seat of Cebu City for nepotism because he allowed the City Government to employ his two brothers-in-law, and yet Go continues to sit as vice chairman of the committee investigating government contracts. Go figure. No pun intended.
Still, I think the Marcos administration has opened Pandora’s Box and must see it through to the end. I don’t know if that is the President’s endgame. But I do know that those in power will need to move heaven and earth if they want to put the matter under the rug. I doubt they can — not this time, anyway. Not when those living in flood-prone areas are constantly reminded of the betrayal of public trust every time they have to wade through waist-deep water during a heavy downpour.
So I guess the question on everyone’s minds right now is, what then?
Let’s face it. We can’t heap all the blame on the contractors. That would be unfair. It would also be unfair to point at members of the Department of Public Works and Highways as the main culprits because some of them are just doing their jobs. Also, not all have access to the billions of pesos of taxpayers’ money that have been funneled into alleged corruption.
The government should stop the farce right now and end the current investigation unless it can find an impartial body to take up the cudgels for the millions of Filipinos who have suffered because of the infrastructure snafu.