Aside from the identification, arrest and prosecution of the perpetrators, there’s the crucial matter of…
Recovering from the offenders the stolen wealth, the kickbacks and bribes.
Overhauling the rotten system that enabled collusion among persons in the legislative and executive departments: legislators, DPWH officials and their runners; gatekeepers in DBM, COA and Office of the President and other offices and agencies.
Killing finally the “pork barrel,” which apparently has refused to die because the crooks in the executive and legislative departments have found it useful and convenient for their political survival and personal affluence. Are they sure the 2026 general appropriation law is stripped totally of the “new pork”?
Size in the growth of the greed -- from the era of the “pork barrel” to the season of “allocables,” un-programmed funds,” and “insertions” -- is starkly, phenomenally staggering.
>A meek public that is already deadened to a sense of outrage or >a kind of offenders who cannot be shamed anymore?
The protests on the streets, the names “kawatan” and “corrupt,” with images and names in text emblazoned, have done little.
Has the public gone tired of complaining, expressing anger, fuming over the flood control funds scandal? Or is it due to the public apathy towards the alternative rule, a clan not spared by allegations of corruption and killings?
We’ve seen and heard all the terrible loss, the gargantuan avarice in the current scandal, “all the meanness and agony without end,” but, unlike Walt Whitman in “Leaves of Grass,” people have not been silent.
Yet, we know, promises have not been kept, a bad sign. The big fish have not been caught and jailed until now (on Dec. 15, 2025, President Marcos Jr. had vowed). Most of the would-be accused, including the Cebu 11 batch, have not yet been investigated or their infra projects looked into.
Congressional hearings have slowed down or ceased. The Independent Commission on Infrastructures (ICI) has done poorly and little and, after resignations, is reduced to a one-person body.
Another reason for Cebu’s 11 lawmakers to unzip their mouths: they’ve been getting a lot more money aside from their pay.
They don’t just receive basic pay, they’re also paid various other amounts for which they need only to sign a certification they were spent for a public purpose.
Controversy has swirled over a Christmas bonus of P2 million each, worsened by the charge that they get same amount each session break.
How much is spent for each congressman/congresswoman and each senator? The public may yet know the exact amount soon.
The Big Q: how on earth could the gang leaders --the masterminds, the big fish -- be caught and hooked if they continue >
to keep power and > steer the scandal’s narrative?