Shadow government

Here’s how things are looking so far...

- IRIS GONZALES

Here’s how things are looking so far, on this chilly morning of October in this scandal-filled nation of 115 million, magnified by the floods, traffic and an earthquake down south.

The House and Senate, once respectable institutions of decades past, are crumbling like a house of cards, with some of their members implicated in the flood control mess of kickbacks and corruption.

Its erstwhile leaders, ousted Senate president Chiz Escudero and resigned House Speaker Martin Romualdez, are trading barbs on who should be held liable for this grand loot, a verbal tussle that erupted after each one’s grand ambitions, meticulously crafted scripts and long-term political blueprints were, quite literally, washed away with the floods.

Now, it seems the question is not who else is guilty but who is the most guilty of them all.

Chiz, trying to salvage the repercussions of his alleged Cork-brewed deal, is pointing to the man he knows it to be — the presidential cousin himself — Martin Romualdez, who has also been implicated by other key players in this corruption scandal, but has yet to face any inquiry.

The mess has unraveled so grotesquely, it’s impossible for any tax paying citizen not to be shaken. Now we know why our economic managers had to resort to pulling funds from PhilHealth and PDIC because billions in much needed taxpayers’ money were being lost to kickbacks.

It seems there’s been a shadow government all along and President Marcos, perhaps too busy globetrotting, including watching an F1 race early into his term, was too oblivious not to know or care.