It’s all for show, we need a Revolution

THERE is a very clever media (mostly) spin going on to cover up the biggest case of corruption in the post-dictatorship era. As over-the-hump Antipolo Rep. Ronaldo Puno declared it, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. and his cousin, former speaker Martin Romualdez, had nothing to do with the flood control scam involving P25 billion in kickbacks, most of it already delivered to the latter’s residences.

That is, as Puno put it, the two most powerful men in the country were outmaneuvered by former Senate president Francis Escudero, and the former party-list representative Elizaldy Co, who should be blamed for the crime.

The spin yesterday was that the justice department and the Ombudsman has filed corruption cases over anomalous flood control projects against presidential cousin and former House speaker Martin Romualdez, ex-congressman Co and 17 other officials of the Public Works department. The Daily Tribune headline says it all; “First salvo tags Co, Romualdez.”

Marcos’ PR people certainly earned their fees when they got Marcos to give short video addresses “updating” the people on the government’s efforts to hunt down those responsible for the flood control scam. In his last address, he even made it appear that he himself wants his cousin arrested.

The truth is that Romualdez is most probably unperturbed, relaxing by a pool at one of his Forbes Park mansions, and probably once in a while taking his P40 million Bentley on a spin. I would bet though that he stays often at his Aguado St. mansion a stone’s throw from Malacañang so he can confer with his cousin. the president. any time they need to coordinate their moves to get over this crisis.

At this time, 2 p.m. Nov 23 (the time I submit my piece to my editors), not a single case has been filed against Romualdez, and therefore no warrant of arrest issued. Ombudsman Jesus Crispin Remulla has publicly said the Ombudsman would file a case against Romualdez in the coming months, but he also stressed that his office was still evaluating the evidence and “building” the case.

Remulla

Remulla the other day even tactlessly revealed that Romualdez had called him up to make a case for himself amid the flood control corruption scandal linking lawmakers to bogus infrastructure projects.

Remulla said: “He was trying to explain his side, that he had no hand in many things but that’s all I can remember. I don’t really remember the specifics. Of course, he was trying to make a case that he had nothing to do with anything.”

Since he can’t remember what specifics his fraternity brother said, could it have been prefaced by “Brod, ganito ang gawin mo…”

I’ve scoured the news reports, and I can’t find any statement from Remulla or Public Works Secretary Vince Dizon to the effect that Romualdez is at the top of their priority in their investigation as to his complicity in the flood control scam.

What is clear in the developments in the past week is that the strategy of Marcos and Romualdez — the masterminds of the scam intended to siphon P25 billion in kickbacks from P100 billion worth of projects that they had inserted into the General Appropriations Act (GAA), or the national budget — is to put sole responsibility for it on Zaldy Co.

Puno has now revealed the next phase of the strategy — put the blame on Escudero, whose image is now in mud when a video got viral that he gifted his wife with a $1 million ring. How the hell could he afford that?

Preposterous

This explanation though is of course preposterous: Co has zero political stature as he only represents the tiny, region-based Ako Bicol Party-list. He became chairman of the House appropriations committee only because Romualdez put him there, as his factotum. His job involved the tedious work of determining what projects should be inserted in the budget, especially those for infrastructure which their accomplice-contractors had identified they would undertake, and committed to give the kickbacks to Marcos, Romualdez and Co. The other part of the job was to identify the projects that had been included by the Budget department in the National Expenditure Program — or the NEP, the budget proposal that the president submits to Congress — but did not involve any promised kickbacks.

I hadn’t even heard of Co before the flood control scam started to come out. He could have inserted the over 800 new appropriations only if he had told the bicameral committee, as well as its smaller committee, that these were Marcos’ insertions, “utos ng hari,” as Romualdez put it in jest. And of course, Romualdez was there to confirm the list was approved and even drawn up by Marcos.

Why would a hundred contractors remit the kickbacks to Escudero, whom everyone knows was Senate president on shifting sands, and wasn’t close at all to Marcos to be trusted by him?

However, in this nation of little minds easily swayed by biased media narratives, the tack of making Co the sole fall guy is gaining traction. I was stunned when a pillar of the Yellow, Marcos-haters gang, Aquino III’s Budget secretary Florencio Abad in a television interview blamed, aside from Co, the just-fired Budget secretary Amenah Pagdanganan. “The president is busy running the government; he can’t go over the GAA line by line. It is his budget secretary who should have done that.”

Abad

Marcos himself belies Abad’s claim. In the Presidential News Agency’s Jan. 30, 2025 report, he said: “Just last month, I had to read 4,057 pages of the GAA for 2025 because I reviewed it, analyzed it, and yes, in parts, vetoed it.”

This bolsters my explanation on what this “insertions” thing is all about, which I will explain in detail on Wednesday: “Rather than hundreds of contractors stealing taxpayers’ money through government projects — a phenomenon which has been going on since the post-war era — Marcos and his gang have introduced an evil innovation: they would monopolize such theft, just as his dictator father did.

Even if a case were filed against Romualdez involving the anomalies in the Oriental Mindoro project, he would most certainly be acquitted. Even Co himself.

What evidence could the Ombudsman present to claim that Co inserted this project in the GAA so his company, Sunwest, could generate illegal profits by not finishing the project as stipulated? Nothing. Co has long ago distanced himself from the firm, even if he owns it.

Much more distant from the firing line would be Romualdez, who will demand that Co present evidence that he had ordered the Mindoro project to be included in the insertions. It’s a classic he-said-he-said situation, and Romualdez would ask the public who to believe — him or a fugitive?

DPWH

Almost certain to be convicted though are the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) regional director and 12 others down to the quality assurance and hydrology division chief, as well five of the Sunwest officers and board members who were involved in undertaking the actual crime. How on Earth can the Ombudsman get the Sunwest people to squeal that it had given Co this much in kickbacks to be given to Romualdez and Marcos?

Co would claim that these were delivered or given to them, among the P10 billion or so in suitcases an ex-Marine sergeant and several others delivered to Co and Romualdez. Really? Which suitcase, the black or the pink one?

Sorry folks, but such is the rule of law (and court rules of evidence).

We’ve already seen such spectacular shows that fizzled out. It took 10 years for the Sandiganbayan to acquit Senators Jinggoy Estrada and Bong Revilla for plunder and graft over the pork barrel scam. In both cases, it was due to the prosecution’s “inability to present sufficient, direct and conclusive evidence of conspiracy and receipt of illegal wealth required under Philippine law.” These crimes were allegedly committed through the senators’ staff. Romualdez and Co would be hundreds of times more distant from the flood control scams.

Indeed, the French philosopher Michael Foucault long ago debunked the illusion that a capitalist system is built on a neutral body of laws: “The law itself functions as a technique of power.”

There is hope though, looking at our recent history. Logic, reason and evidence, even if not complete, point to the reality that the Marcos regime undertook this gargantuan scam to siphon money from the flood control projects with the connivance of contractors — who advanced the money to them — which the contractors recovered through below-standard or ghost projects.

We are convinced of this, just as the nation was convinced that Marcos, despite his machinery and money, didn’t win the Feb. 7, 1986 snap elections, even if the Commission on Elections declared him the victor. Fifteen years later, the nation was convinced that President Estrada was so corrupt he couldn’t remain in power, even if the majority of the impeachment court were on his side.

In these two cases, the nation set aside the rule of law, and got the muscle behind that rule of law — the military — to intervene and oust the two presidents.

I’m convinced this will happen again.

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It’s all for show, we need a Revolution
Source: Breaking News PH