BBM's litmus tests

Two things are seen as litmus tests of the sincerity and commitment of President Marcos to leave an anti-corruption legacy.

- ANA MARIE PAMINTUAN

One is something that he can claim to be beyond his full control: the indictment of his relatives linked to large-scale corruption in the flood control scandal.

This is in the hands of the Office of the Ombudsman, an independent constitutional body, and later the judiciary, a coequal branch of government. But the appointing power in the judiciary can give a nudge in the right direction. BBM must go for quality rather than quantity in this crackdown.

The other litmus test is the 2026 national budget, which BBM signs today, after a week of what Malacañang described as a review "with a fine-tooth comb" of the budget bill hammered out by the 20th Congress.

What the President signs could blunt any destructive impact of whatever bomb Luis "Chavit" Singson has promised to set off today against BBM.

Malacañang may dismiss Singson as a compromised accuser, since he faces a plunder complaint filed last October in connection with the purchase of a property in Narvacan, Ilocos Sur that was allegedly overpriced by P100 million when he was mayor of the town.

By announcing a "fine-tooth comb" review of the 2026 General Appropriations Bill, Malacañang has again raised public expectations - this time, that BBM will put his foot down on what budget watchdogs have described as P633 billion in "hard, soft and shadow pork" in the GAB.

The "hard" pork barrel is P180 billion worth of infrastructure projects that are "reshaped through political discretion rather than sound planning," according to the People's Budget Coalition and Roundtable for Inclusive Development. The coalition wants implementation of such projects opened to multisectoral citizen monitoring.