Fixing corruption starts with reforming a defunct DPWH

Recent legislative hearings and online exposés have shown an alleged corruption scheme in flood control projects.

- PATRICIA MATIAS

The scale of it shocked the nation as government contractors Sarah and Curlee Discaya revealed scores of legislators, government engineers, local elected officials and private contractors purportedly involved in the scheme.

Amid the horrifying corruption scandal, I hung on to a seed of hope - the investigations at least seemed to be leading to concrete changes. The public outcry that followed has shamed implicated officials, enough for them to resign or get axed from their posts. DPWH secretary Manuel Bonoan resigned early this month, in an attempt to take an ounce of responsibility for the anomalies that happened under his watch. Most recently, Senate President Chiz Escudero was ousted following a revelation that his top campaign donor is linked to the anomalous flood control projects.

Changes at the top rung are promising, but rarely do they lead to sustained solutions on their own, as we have seen in previous corruption exposés such as ex-president Gloria Macapagal Arroyo's NBN-ZTE deal scandal and Janet Napoles’ pork barrel scam. To truly curb corruption, we must overhaul defunct systems that allow corruption to fester, and this begins by rehabilitating the primary department responsible: DPWH.