Shameless

FIRST PERSON

- ALEX MAGNO

Last month's flooding could well be the proverbial straw that broke the camel's back. Everywhere, citizens are mobilizing to help fight the scourge that besets our society. Everywhere, too, people find the Marcos administration's response to the scourge of corruption seriously wanting. In his last SONA, President Marcos promised to name and shame those involved in the wanton theft of public funds allocated for flood control. That response is weak. What we need is sweeping institutional changes.

Speaker Martin Romualdez, under whose term corruption reached appalling proportions, makes a show about ensuring transparency of the bicameral committee proceedings. That has become irrelevant. The grand theft has happened in the 2024 and 2025 national budgets where existing laws that earmarked funds were simply ignored in the mad grab for patronage money.

One law, for instance, setting aside 80 percent of collections to fund health care was brusquely set aside and the subsidy for PhilHealth was reduced to zero. This instance alone makes the General Appropriations Act vulnerable to being declared unconstitutional. Such a ruling emanating from the Supreme Court will open the door to criminally charging our legislators.

Last Saturday, I attended the Pandesal Forum on the corruption problem. The two main speakers in that forum—Baguio Mayor Benjamin Magalong and former Appropriations Committee chair Isidro Ungab—were enthusiastically applauded by the crowd. They have emerged as the heroic truth-tellers of this time.