New year, new resolve needed
Charity and goodwill are the sentiments most often expected to be practiced during the holiday season, so it can seem uncharitable to wish imprisonment or some other form of legal punishment, on fellow citizens at this time of year.
And yet that was the thing many Filipinos had prayed for as Christmas rolled around—and justifiably so. The public was coming from a place of singular frustration, as it continued to see from the appalling scale of corruption in public works projects uncovered over the last few months.
The Marcos administration—which, to be fair, had triggered the long-overdue reckoning with President Marcos’ surprise denunciation of thieving contractors in connivance with Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) officials during his State of the Nation Address in July—had sought to quell public outrage by promising quick action.
Specifically, the President himself promised not only that cases would be filed soonest against those behind the flood control projects scandal, but also that the “big fish” among them would be spending Christmas in jail. This was the least the public expected, and, while Filipinos are famously the most Christmas-obsessed race in the world, it seemed that at this point, they were also in an unforgiving mood: Set aside the holiday spirit for once if that meant extracting a measure of justice from the plunderers in government.
Biggest political earthquake
Who could blame them? The vast sums skimmed from flood control projects, resulting in shoddy or practically nonexistent infrastructure, were directly responsible for actual losses in lives and properties that citizens endured every time the rains came and the inevitable floods followed. Occurrences that, gravely, were now becoming more and more frequent with climate change, promising only more misery ahead.
Many citizens had pinned their hopes on the President’s avowals of thorough and transparent action on what had become the biggest political earthquake to shake his administration. They summoned cautious hope as Mr. Marcos established the Independent Commission on Infrastructure (ICI) in September—but they would grow increasingly disappointed as the commission hemmed and hawed on livestreaming its proceedings and was given no teeth to prosecute those it found to have run afoul of the law.
Just three months on and the ICI is seemingly on its last throes, with two commissioners having resigned and the full extent of the public works corruption it was mandated to look into still out of its grasp.
Citizenry’s cynicism
Blame for the body’s ineffectual work and quick descent to irrelevance should be laid squarely at Malacañang—for its refusal to back the urgent proposal by legislators to fortify the ICI with real powers, and to demand more from what could have been the prime mechanism to impose accountability and begin the hard task of restoring confidence in government.
With Christmas having come and gone, only a handful of DPWH officials and one big-time contractor—Sarah Discaya—have been sent to jail. Not one high-profile politician linked to the scandal has so far been arrested, reinforcing the citizenry’s cynicism that the law will eventually come down only on the scapegoats and the small fry, while the masterminds at the top will once again get away with their crimes.
This had been the country’s experience with the pork barrel scam. And yet the Marcos administration’s indecisive, waffling moves toward the very campaign it had started threaten to retrace the same unsatisfying process—the wheels of justice stuck at empty promises, endless distractions (like the tawdry back-and-forth over alleged incriminating DPWH papers between Batangas 1st District Rep. Leandro Leviste and Marcos officials), or the prosecution of second-tier henchmen, while the country sinks further into a morass of festering, unresolved issues.
The new year is the moment for the Palace to harden its resolve and finally seize the wheel—if it is indeed serious about rooting out corruption and implementing reforms in governance.
Moving goalposts
For starters, a new Pulse Asia survey says 52 percent, or more than half of Filipinos, are in favor of an Independent Commission Against Infrastructure Corruption—a body that should be created by Congress with full powers to back up its mandate, unlike the ICI that was formed by executive order. The President should push for the establishment of such a body, to ensure that the drive against government rot does not flag.
And the arrest of wrongdoers must continue—because even if the Palace is conveniently moving goalposts, the public is steadfast in its anger. The new year must see tangible action against many others involved in the flood control mess, especially lawmakers and other well-placed coconspirators who are at the apex of these sprawling misdeeds.
The administration has the opportunity to rise to its finest hour this 2026, but time is running out. It will be judged severely if it fumbles this fundamental task.
