Eh hindi nahiya

The Filipino title of this article is a nod to the upcoming Buwan ng Wika this August. The Komisyon sa Wikang Pilipino is hoping that the Senate impeachment court will also use extensively our national language, Filipino, during the trial.

“Eh hindi nahiya”– they weren’t shamed – was also President Marcos’ own honest assessment of the response to his message given a year ago during his State of the Nation Address (SONA), for the looters to have some shame, “Mahiya naman kayo.”

The country faces a host of seemingly intractable problems, all calling for urgent responses. But because last year’s SONA is remembered for the shame campaign, the most awaited part of BBM’s report to the nation today is his update on what has been achieved so far in this area.

The public verdict – if we go by the surveys of the reputable pollsters – is that people are underwhelmed, mainly because those perceived to be the biggest fish are still swimming freely.

Also, the DDS aren’t the only ones who think the pursuit of looters has been selective. Losing administration Senate bet Bong Revilla doesn’t count, due to his record of tenuous political loyalties.

To be fair, considering realpolitik and institutional weaknesses in our judicial system, public expectations were set unrealistically high from the start.

But it does look like BBM had a reality check early on in the campaign. It started with Baguio City Mayor Benjamin Magalong, who has long been harping about massive corruption in public works projects, resigning as special adviser of the Independent Commission for Infrastructure. (Remember the ICI?) This was after he felt that his probe had “struck a nerve” and may “have hit too close to home.” Whose nerve and whose home, he has yet to say.

The ICI, organized with much fanfare, then became bogged down in secrecy, contradicting the administration’s supposed push for transparency.

Contrary to the promises of administration officials,  the big fish still enjoyed Christmas 2025. The two ICI commissioners resigned in December. By New Year’s Day 2026, ICI chairman Andres Reyes Jr. was left all by his lonesome.

As ICI chair, Reyes is best remembered for the placard that he held up during a press conference in November, declaring that “what the world needs now is love, not greed, not selfishness.” Amen!

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Reporting on his shame campaign, BBM can point to those currently in jail without bail: two incumbent senators, a former senator, his former public works secretary (under hospital arrest) and the most notorious of the private contractors, couple Curlee and Sarah Discaya.

The perceived leviathans, however, are either beyond the reach of Philippine law or have yet to be indicted in court.

Topping the list is resigned Ako Bicol party-list congressman Zaldy Co, who’s happily cooling his heels in Paris while his wife is still shopping till she’s dropping as they await French approval for his asylum application.

Co miraculously evaded being turned over to the custody of the Philippines’ secretary of justice, who had jetted off to picturesque Prague ostensibly to pick up Co as he traveled from Portugal to the Czech Republic and then on to France.

After all those months of noisy probes implicating Co in the budget and public works anomalies, did Manila ever alert Interpol and the European Union that he is wanted for possible plunder and money laundering?

France is the home of the global dirty money watchdog Financial Action Task Force, so it’s ironic that Co picked that country for his asylum bid.

Co is supposedly being sought by the government not just because of the budget acrobatics and the flood control projects cornered by his family’s construction company Sunwest, but also to shed light on the role of Leyte Rep. Martin Romualdez in the scandal.

Romualdez has maintained that even if he was the speaker in the 19th Congress, he did not micromanage the budget process and he had not handpicked Co to chair the powerful committee on appropriations.

Eighteen mostly ex-soldiers who claim to have served as Co’s bodyguards have alleged that they delivered megabucks in suitcases apparently as kickbacks to the homes or private properties of Romualdez, several senators as well as BBM himself and his son, Ilocos Norte Rep. Sandro Marcos.

The “dagdag-bawas” shifting stories of the 18 self-proclaimed “bagmen” eroded their credibility, but they managed to raise suspicions over possible kickbacks to the Marcoses themselves – a rather easy sell, considering that the surname has long been associated with kleptocracy.

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Suspicions of selective justice are reinforced by the seeming immunity of BBM’s aides from prosecution, led by his former executive secretary Lucas Bersamin and the latter’s grandnephew Adrian Bersamin.

BBM’s former public works chief Manuel Bonoan is likely to turn state witness, while former budget chief Amenah Pangandaman has been recycled as chair and CEO of Al-Amanah Islamic Investment Bank.

Last Friday, the Office of the Ombudsman announced that the fact-finding into Romualdez’s possible role in the budget and flood control mess had been elevated to a preliminary investigation for plunder, direct and indirect bribery, graft and money laundering.

The complaint, which also covers Co, accuses the respondents of amassing a whopping P56 billion in ill-gotten wealth between 2022 and 2025, during the 19th Congress.

Romualdez will be summoned to answer the complaint before the ombudsman decides whether cases can be filed in court. His assets have been frozen and he is covered by a provisional travel ban.

People will be watching to see if Romualdez shows up at the joint session of Congress for his cousin’s fifth SONA today. Sources say Romualdez and BBM’s non-sister Senator Imee stopped attending family gatherings at Malacañang many months ago.

At the SONA last year, Romualdez and then Senate president Francis Escudero lustily applauded with the rest of the lawmakers when BBM told the looters, “mahiya naman kayo.”

During the joint session today, the peanut gallery will be conducting a head count on who among the looters were actually shamed.