Badly needed: Urgency, resolve

A joke has been making the rounds of social media since Monday night. Roughly translated from Filipino, it goes: He got sent back to jail faster than the P124.5 million the court had ordered him to return.

The English formulation doesn’t quite capture the original tang of the vernacular, but it still makes plain the absurd, topsy-turvy world of Philippine justice.

The quip refers to former Sen. Ramon “Bong” Revilla Jr., who surrendered himself on Monday night following the issuance of an arrest warrant against him and several others by the Sandiganbayan.

The charge: allegedly receiving kickbacks from flood control projects in Pandi, Bulacan, prompting malversation and graft complaints filed against him and six Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) personnel by the Office of the Ombudsman.

DPWH Undersecretary Roberto Bernardo, now a state witness in the flood control scandal, testified that he delivered P125 million to Revilla’s residence in 2024, and then another P250 million before the 2025 elections.

Underwhelming appearance

Revilla’s return to jail late Monday night capped a day of thwarted expectations. Earlier, the Senate blue ribbon committee had reopened its hearings on the flood control mess, but other than the farcical sight of a witness permitted to wear his shirt as a mask while testifying, and the underwhelming appearance of Batangas 1st District Rep. Leandro Leviste—who had previously threatened bombshell disclosures from his copy of the so-called Cabral files—the hearing produced no new revelations or insights that would decisively move the needle on the scandal at hand.

It was left to Revilla and his voluntary march back to jail to make the impression that at least some form of progress was happening in the flood control investigation, no matter how belated or plodding. The former senator is the biggest political personality so far to end up behind bars for the corruption scandal, and for now, the Marcos administration can point to him and say—look, we promised “big fish,” and there’s one now.

Never mind that President Marcos’ original promise to net the “big fish”—his own words—came with a December 2025 deadline, later moved to after the New Year when nothing materialized. Other than Revilla, no politicians have yet been netted, only contractors and DPWH personnel, among them Sarah Discaya, who is now detained in a jail in Cebu.

Baffling decision

As it is, Revilla may even qualify as an easy target in this investigation. Ombudsman Jesus Crispin Remulla had previously described him and Sen. Jinggoy Estrada as “low-hanging fruits” due to the preponderance of early evidence against them—but also perhaps because they both already had similar stints in prison, for the pork barrel scam of many years ago.

That was where the P124.5 million reminder came from. While Revilla was acquitted of plunder over the pork barrel scam by the Sandiganbayan in December 2018, the court also ordered him to return P124.5 million to the national treasury. The court never bothered to clarify that baffling decision or ensure its enforcement, such that seven years later, Revilla was back in jail for yet another corruption charge, and still not a cent of that P124.5 million has been given back to the people.

The namby-pamby quality of justice and liability meted out in this country when it comes to the powerful and well-connected informs the public’s continuing anger and anxiety over the ongoing flood control investigation. Not only is the probe seemingly moving at a glacial pace, with the President’s much-ballyhooed Independent Commission for Infrastructure defanged and down to its last months, but the trajectory also appears to hew to the disgraceful outcome of the pork barrel scam: In the end, only the small fry will be punished as scapegoats, while the true masterminds of the sweeping criminal racket that stole billions of the people’s money right inside the halls and corridors of government will once again get away.

Big-shot indictees

Restitution alone won’t cut it. Conviction must be the end point for all perpetrators and wrongdoers. So far, according to the Department of Justice, three former DPWH officials and one private contractor have been admitted to the Witness Protection Program: Bernardo, former Bulacan 1st District engineer Henry Alcantara, former National Capital Region regional director Gerard Opulencia, and SYMS Construction Trading owner and manager Sally Santos. They were admitted not only because of the value of their testimonies, but also because they returned a total of P316.3 million to the government.

That is a welcome gesture, but still woefully a long way off from the full measure of accountability that the present corruption saga demands. A criminal investigation with more state witnesses than big-shot indictees at this point needs to work double time, and Revilla’s second sojourn in jail should only prod the Marcos administration to act on the corruption scandal gnawing at its foundations with greater urgency and resolve.

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