Lingering corruption issue
The latest year-end survey of Social Weather Stations showed that four out of 10 Filipinos expect the quality of their life to improve in the coming 12 months.
That finding does not come as a surprise because most Filipinos are, by nature, optimistic about the future at the beginning of the New Year, despite the adverse conditions they may have gone through in the preceding year. Hope springs eternal.
Note that the country is entering 2026 with a major political issue that unraveled last year and is expected to continue to gain traction in the coming months—the “ghost” and substandard flood control projects that allegedly involve some members of Congress and the executive branch.
Recall that some two months ago, President Marcos said a “big fish” suspected of being behind that scandal would spend the holiday season behind bars.
The guessing game on who that would be centered on the senators and congressmen whose names were mentioned in the testimonies of former officials of the Department of Public Works and Highways. The public waited with bated breath for the identity of that person.
But as things turned out later, only the small fry, i.e., private contractors and lower-level government employees and officials, have, so far, been held accountable for the trillion-peso heist of taxpayers’ money.
To aggravate matters, the Independent Commission for Infrastructure (ICI), which was tasked to investigate that scam, was marred by the sudden resignation of two members, which effectively shut it down.
The bills earlier filed in Congress to create a body similar to the ICI that would have the powers needed to strengthen its authority did not even reach the committee level.
Perish the thought that any of those legislative proposals would come to fruition.
The creation of the ICI gave the impression that the latest scandal to hit the country would not go the way of the past congressional pork barrel issue, where the real culprits were allowed to go unpunished, no thanks to the Sandiganbayan, as complained by Ombudsman Crispin Remulla.
Sadly, the ICI fell miserably short of the expectations. The testimony of the members of Congress who were invited to appear before it was kept under wraps and the public was left guessing on what they had testified on.
The promised transparency in the investigation did not happen because those testimonies were given in executive session, which assured their confidentiality.
Under these circumstances, the business community is justified in expressing lament over the manner by which the flood control project anomaly is being managed (or mismanaged) by the government.
Corruption in government, particularly if it involves high-ranking officials, is a sensitive issue for the business sector. It is something it has to deal with and refrain from coming out publicly about for fear of getting the ire of the government officials concerned.
The saying “you can’t fight city hall” (meaning, it is futile to try and oppose the bureaucratic system) remains an unwritten rule in dealing with the government.
When companies are compelled to comply with ethical business rules and practices under pain of fines and penalties, they expect the same standard to apply to government offices. More so, if the people’s money is involved.
Concern about corruption in government is not confined to the local business community. This issue had been reported and discussed in some international business news portals.
Foreign investors who have earlier expressed interest in doing business in the country cannot be faulted for putting on hold any such plans unless they are assured that their investments would not be caught in the corruption whirl that seems to be endemic to the country.
What a way to start the New Year.
