Marcos vows ‘no Merry Christmas’ for 37 tagged in flood mess
It won’t be a Merry Christmas for at least 37 people linked to the flood control scandal, including several lawmakers, as far as President Marcos is concerned.
“They will be locked up. They will not have a Merry Christmas,” Mr. Marcos said on Thursday.
He said that he was certain of this following the conclusion of the investigations of corruption in the multibillion-peso flood control projects.
Mr. Marcos declined to give a complete list of names of those he believed would be jailed soon. But his cousin, former Speaker Martin Romualdez, will not be among them—at least “not yet,” he said.
At a press briefing, Mr. Marcos gave a rundown of what the government had accomplished since he bared the irregularities in flood mitigation projects in his State of the Nation Address on July 28.
He also made fresh warnings against all of those allegedly involved.
“So everyone who colluded in this corruption scandal, these shameless people who steal the people’s money—your days of enjoying yourselves are over! We will go after you!” he said.
The President said the first batch of case referrals by the Independent Commission for Infrastructure (ICI) transmitted to the Office of the Ombudsman implicated 37 individuals, including lawmakers, former officials and current officials of the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH), and contractors.
Among them were Senators Joel Villanueva and Jinggoy Estrada; resigned Ako Bicol Rep. Zaldy Co, former House appropriations chair; former Caloocan Rep. Mitch Cajayon-Uy; and Commission on Audit Commissioner Mario Lipana.
Also on the list were former Public Works Secretary Manuel Bonoan; Public Works Undersecretaries Roberto Bernardo and Maria Catalina Cabral; officials from the DPWH Bulacan First District Engineering Office and DPWH Mimaropa regional office; and private contractors.
Asked why Romualdez, who allegedly received millions of pesos in kickbacks, was not included, the President said that the evidence against his cousin that came mostly from the Senate blue ribbon committee hearings was not sufficient to build a case to send him to jail.
“No, with the Speaker, no. Not as yet. Not as yet,” he said. “If something else comes out, then he might have to be answerable for something.”
“We don’t file cases for optics. We file cases to put people in jail or to make people answer,” Mr. Marcos added.
Public can help
The President asked the public, who has been growing impatient to see the masterminds behind the flood control scandal sent to jail, to give the government agencies, especially the ICI, more time to expand their investigation and pursue airtight cases.
“I know that there are many, many suggestions of who else we should file cases against. Well, we’re fine with that. Provide us the evidence and we will file cases against them,” he added.
Marcos urged the public to continue sending reports of questionable flood control and other infrastructure projects to the Sumbong sa Pangulo website to serve as additional evidence in pursuing cases.
“No one is immune, no one is exempted in these investigations,” the President said.
Asked if the government would be open to Co becoming a state witness, the President answered: “That option is always there, except for them who are the most guilty.”
But did he consider Co as the “most guilty” among those tagged in the corruption scandal?
The President refused to directly answer, saying: “If I answer it, people say that I have him prejudged. Let the courts do their work. Let the judges do their work,” he said.
Co, a central figure in the corruption scandal, was accused of receiving billions of pesos in kickbacks from contractors and DPWH officials who testified in congressional probes into flood control projects. He vehemently denied the allegations.
Co departed for abroad in August just as the congressional inquiries started. He has refused to return home because of alleged death threats against him and members of his family.
His company, Sunwest Inc., has been linked to substandard and nonexistent flood control projects. Investigators believe his roles overlapped, allowing him to use his position as lawmaker to secure government contracts.
Dizon assurance
It was Public Works Secretary Vince Dizon who earlier assured the public that personalities linked to flood control anomalies would be jailed before the end of the year.
“Yes, that is for sure,” Dizon told Inquirer in a Viber message on Thursday when asked if this would be the case.
Dizon also said two cases involving at least 41 individuals would be filed before Christmas.
On Wednesday, he said the Ombudsman’s “goal is to have these two cases filed this month.”
Dizon said 26 personalities in Bulacan and 15 in Oriental Mindoro would be detained over two cases that the Office of the Ombudsman would file in the Sandiganbayan.
“So just in those two cases, [more than] 40 people, those are the first to be jailed because the cases are nonbailable,” Dizon said.
He earlier said that they were not planning on filing plunder charges, which are nonbailable.
But bail will be discretionary for cases involving public funds amounting to over a certain amount.
The DPWH had prepared charges of violations of the antigraft law and the Government Procurement Act, and malversation and falsification in at least five flood control projects worth over P345 million in Bulacan.
Meanwhile, ICI Chair Andres Reyes Jr. said on Thursday that it would be “premature” for him to say whether officials and contractors tagged in the flood control mess would be jailed by Christmas Day, saying he could not sway other government institutions building the potential cases.
“That’s a premature statement. I cannot influence the other parts of the government. We’re only recommending. Of course, I think everybody wishes that,” he told reporters when asked about his reaction to President Marcos’ remark about jailing those behind the scheme.
