Or the probes may stop at the doors of Zaldy Co and ex-House speaker Martin Romualdez
From >congressional hearings to >investigations, >resignations and >arrest warrants: they must be nearing the MASTERMIND AND AIDES, main plotters of the flood-control funds scandal, a gargantuan looting of public funds in recent Philippine history.
* THOSE INVESTIGATED include 9 senators, 22 House members and ex-members, 10 national government officials, with five Cabinet and Cabinet-rank secretaries, 4 undersecretaries, one Concon member, one special envoy, at least 40 DPWH officials. The count keeps rising as disclosures and allegations expose more names.
* ARREST WARRANTS BEING ISSUED against Elizaldy “Zaldy” Co, a former congressman, and 15 others.
* OFFICIALS IN EXECUTIVE DEPT. who “resigned” over the flood control funds scandal included
Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin and Dept. of Budget & Management (DBM) Secretary Amanah Pangandaman. It’s their quitting that prompted speculation that the trail is getting closer to the mastermind.
What prompts speculation the suspects may include President Marcos?
The speculation, rampantly circulated on social media platforms, says the President either > was clueless about the looting of flood control funds, in which case he was not competent or intelligent, or >was very much in it, as the thievery required a collusion participated in by agencies and people under the President’s control or influence.
How much had been pilfered and stolen? Not ascertained but budget from July 2022 to May 2024 was P849 billion and budget from 2022 to 2025 was P1.32 trillion*
Amounts stolen and mentioned in testimonies were in percentages of the budget: from 25% to 40% on substandard projects to 100% on ghost projects. And millions of pesos in cash stuffed into bags and luggage when the loot was distributed.
The specific total amount lost to corruption in flood control projects has still to be ascertained. Note that the budgets disclosed are those from 2022, covering President Marcos Jr.’s term. The amounts from 2016, under then president Rodrigo Duterte’s watch, are not yet publicized.
Locally elected officials are duty-bound to look into and report about flood-control projects in their respective LGUs or districts: governors, mayors, congressmen, congresswomen --- or they risk condemnation and sanction.
Most Cebu officials, especially the House members, have been reticent about the the state of their flood control projects: Do they or did have it, where, what’s the status, how was the spending?
Accounting and review of each project may assure constituents of the LGU chief or Congress legislators that there has been no theft of such funds in his/her province, city, town or district.