Untouchables

Benjie Magalong is a dangerous man. All relentless people are.

- ALEX MAGNO

When he starts something, he fully intends to complete it. When he begins investigating, he will not stop until he gets to the bottom of it all. When he finds the truth, he proclaims it with ardor.

When asked to investigate the massacre at Mamasapano, he refused to acquit a bungling administration. When asked to investigate the so-called “ninja cops,” he did not care if he stepped on powerful toes. He did not become chief of the PNP because he cannot be cowed by the powers-that-be.

The House of Representatives did not dare summon him to the hearings on the flood control scam. The congressmen could not handle the truth spoken to their faces.

Magalong was competent, trained and courageous. The entrenched political elite fears such a man - especially one with an Igorot name. He is unlikely to play by the unwritten rules.

Because he had assiduously investigated the “kalakaran” of our pork barrel politics - and was not hesitant to talk about his findings - Magalong had to somehow be coopted into the Independent Commission on Infrastructure (ICI). Involving him somehow as a nebulously defined “special adviser” would add credibility to the proceedings. His credibility was a gift to a beleaguered administration.

Except that he took his role too seriously and worked too hard. That was not supposed to happen. He visited the far-flung ghost projects and invited media attention to them. At the rate he was going, it was only a matter of time before he began looking at the infra projects done in Ilocos Norte and Leyte.