Shame on the senators and representatives

“Let us not pretend anymore. The general public already knows there is racket involved in the projects — kickbacks, initiative, errata, SOP ‘for the boys.’ That is why, to those who conspire to rob the nation’s funds and steal the future of our countrymen, shame on you! Your fellow Filipinos were swept by floods or were submerged in floodwaters.

- OSCAR P. LAGMAN, JR.

Shame on you, especially to our children who will inherit the debt you incurred because you only pocketed the money.

“So that this will not happen again, first, the DPWH (Department of Public Works and Highways) will immediately submit to me a list of all flood control projects from every region that were started or completed in the last three years. Second, the Regional Project Monitoring Committee shall examine that list of projects and give a report on those that have been failures, those that were not completed, and those that are alleged to be ghost projects. And third, we will make public this list, so that the people can see these projects for themselves and freely study the list and share what they know so that they can help in our investigations.

“There will also be an audit and performance review regarding these projects to verify them and how the taxpayers’ money was spent. In the following months, charges will be filed against all those found guilty of wrongdoing, including all the contractors complicit in the corruption. The whole country must know the whole truth. Some people have to account for this large-scale corruption.”

That is what President Ferdinand Marcos, Jr. bluntly told the members of both chambers of Congress towards the end of his fourth State of the Nation Address on July 28.

The President has done what he said he will do: come out with a list of flood control projects in the last three years, make known the status of those projects, and make public those reports. The mainstream media had done a remarkable job in exposing the miserable state of those projects, the public exposure enraging the citizenry, most especially the poor.