Shame campaign

Loud applause greeted President Marcos' mention of "palpak" and "guni-guni" or defective and imagined flood control projects.

- ANA MARIE PAMINTUAN

His call for shame — "mahiya naman kayo" — among those who steal people's money is the most memorable line in his fourth State of the Nation Address.

A probe has been set, he said in the SONA, and a list is being drawn up of all the flood control projects funded under his watch, complete with audit and implementation reports, which will be made public for the scrutiny of all.

But among those watching the live coverage of the SONA at the joint session of Congress, dismay quickly replaced jubilation as it became clear that some of the loudest applause was coming from those who are being asked to show shame.

BBM focused on flood control in recognition of the issues that pulled down his slate in the midterm elections last May.

Along this line, he warned Congress that he would no longer stand for a repeat of the mangling of the national budget.

He vowed to reject any funding bill that is not aligned with the National Expenditure Program of the executive. As in the part about flood control, the thieves who did the mangling in the 2024 and 2025 General Appropriations Act (GAA) were among those who lustily applauded his warning and later expressed support for it.

Maybe the real message to BBM in his avowed crackdown on shameless crooks was, "Let's see you do it."

If those who institutionalized thievery in the GAA had any sense of shame to begin with, the budget mangling would not have happened.