Fighting organized crime of corruption

COMMONSENSE

- MARICHU A. VILLANUEVA

"Name your price." This is reportedly being offered to spin doctors to troubleshoot the raging scandals on alleged "ghost" flood control projects linking top government officials as well as those in Congress.

In the center of the scandals are the 15 biggest contractors that allegedly cornered the bulk of the P545-billion budget this year of the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH).

Among the 15 reportedly involved in "ghost" flood control projects are nine of the construction firms owned by the couple Pacifico "Curlee" Discaya and wife Sarah. Parallel investigations supposedly "in aid of legislation" are being separately undertaken by the Senate Blue Ribbon committee and the House Tri-comm, composed of the House committees on public accounts; on good government and on infrastructure.

But President Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr. (PBBM) finally created yesterday an "independent" commission that will investigate all these accusations and information gathered so far in both congressional inquiries. After all, it was PBBM himself who first exposed these 15 big contractors as largely behind the "ghost" flood control projects that found their way into the 2025 General Appropriations Act (GAA) he signed into law.

Before the creation of this presidential body, newly appointed DPWH "acting" Secretary Vivencio "Vince" Dizon had the decency to stop his predecessor's internal investigations into these alleged anomalous flood control projects.

Now I know where 'the skies (as in Discaya's) the limit' pun comes from.

As promised by PBBM, he issued yesterday Executive Order (EO) 94 that created a three-man Commission for Infrastructure tasked to conduct a full-blown investigation. Although only an ad hoc - or temporary - body, it is a very powerful commission that will investigate all government-funded infrastructure projects for the past 10 years and not just graft-tainted flood control projects from 2022 to 2025.