Crawling beneath the bar of Caesar's wife

In public service, the old adage remains timeless: “Caesar’s wife must be above suspicion.” It demands not just the absence of guilt, but the presence of unquestionable integrity and propriety.

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Sadly, what we witness today is far from that standard. We are not just dealing with public officials who fail to rise above suspicion — they are, in fact, sinking deep into a mire of damning evidence. Guilt, in this case, is not a matter of conjecture but of documentation.

Let us remember Julius Caesar. When his wife, Pompeia, became entangled in a scandal during the Bona Dea festival, Caesar divorced her — not because she was proven guilty, but because her position demanded she be beyond any trace of suspicion. He famously declared, “My wife ought not even to be under suspicion.”

Today, it is not suspicion but actual proof that convicts many public projects, particularly those under the government's flood control program. In his State of the Nation Address (SONA) on July 28, President Ferdinand Marcos, Jr. didn’t mince words: the corruption is real, the structures are substandard, and the people’s money is wasted.

FLOODED IN FUNDS, DROWNED IN CORRUPTION

Since July 2022, a staggering P545 billion has been allocated to flood control projects. Yet what has emerged from these funds is not protection from floods, but a flood of evidence pointing to corruption, waste, and conspiracy.

• Concentration of Projects: Just 10 provinces cornered the lion’s share of these projects — Bulacan (668), Cebu (414), Isabela (341), Pangasinan (313), Pampanga (292), Albay (273), Leyte (262), Tarlac (258), Camarines Sur (252), and Ilocos Norte (224). Meanwhile, equally vulnerable areas such as Metro Manila, Maguindanao, and North Cotabato were conspicuously neglected.

• Concentration of Contractors: Only 15 contractors monopolized these projects, bagging nearly P100 billion in contracts. Five of them had nationwide reach. This tight concentration raises serious questions about transparency, competitiveness, and favoritism.