EDITORIAL - Shame campaign follow-through

Following up on his much applauded “mahiya naman kayo” message to crooks, President Marcos said yesterday that he would cut ties with any ally found to be involved in anomalous government deals: “Sorry na lang, hindi na kita kaalyado.”

How he will follow through on this statement will be as closely watched as his order to scrutinize all flood control projects to determine where all the billions of pesos in funding went.

Much will depend on who will conduct the probe, on whether there will be sacred cows, and whether punishment will be rendered. People are also expecting reforms to promote transparency in the budget process.

In his third State of the Nation Address last year, the President had trumpeted the completion of 5,500 flood control projects nationwide. People remembered this and wondered where the projects went as massive flooding before his SONA last month paralyzed much of Metro Manila and several other areas in Luzon.

Sen. Panfilo Lacson said a member of the previous 19th Congress had told him that 67 members of the House of Representatives were also contractors in government deals, whether as direct owners of private companies or through their relatives.

Some lawmakers have said Manuel Bonoan should go on leave as secretary of the Department of Public Works and Highways pending the probe ordered by the President. Should those 67 – if they are still lawmakers – also be made to go on leave? The DPWH will not be conducting the probe, the President clarified yesterday.

Apart from the conflict of interest, which goes against several existing laws covering graft and corruption, public outrage was also stoked by the mangling of the General Appropriations Act for this year, with the DPWH getting the lion’s share of the national budget instead of education as mandated by the Constitution.

For 2026, the Department of Budget and Management is proposing an outlay of P274.9 billion for flood control projects of the DPWH – down from the current P346.6 billion. The DBM explained that this was because insertions made by lawmakers in this year’s DPWH outlay were removed.

To this day, the public doesn’t know exactly who made all the insertions during the top-secret bicameral conference of the previous Congress.

Lifting this veil of secrecy from the bicam is just one step in the move for transparency and accountability in the flood control program. The nation will be closely watching the outcome of the President’s shame campaign.