EDITORIAL - Worth fighting for

The nation marks the 42nd anniversary of the assassination of Benigno Aquino Jr. today with the people outraged over the greed that has caused so much public misery due to substandard or non-existent projects and programs costing billions in people’s money.

Fighting massive corruption during the Marcos dictatorship was one of the advocacies of Aquino and the other members of the opposition. It is lamentable that over four decades since Aquino was killed together with alleged hitman Rolando Galman, large-scale corruption persists and has even been described as endemic.

National attention is currently focused on substandard and imagined or “guni-guni” flood control projects, which have caused deaths, injury and sickness as well as colossal destruction of infrastructure, property and crops in the past years.

Related to the issue is the brazen mangling of the 2025 national budget by senators and congressmen, many of whom are again members of the current 20th Congress.

As Sen. Panfilo Lacson disclosed in a privilege speech yesterday, the lion’s share of kickbacks from substandard or ghost flood control projects goes to lawmakers. These members of Congress insert their pet projects during budget deliberations, and earmark more for funding under unprogrammed appropriations whose amounts have surged in the past few years.

President Marcos, a former congressman and senator, must have known these schemes all along when he told crooks, in his speech at the joint opening session of the 20th Congress, to have some shame, “mahiya naman kayo.”

It’s ironic although a welcome development that the only son of Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos is leading a campaign to promote accountability in government. The campaign deserves widespread support to ensure its success and drastically reduce corruption.

Ninoy Aquino and the opposition campaigned against large-scale corruption and gross human rights violations during the martial law regime. He returned from exile, ignoring warnings about threats to his life, reportedly saying that the Filipino is worth dying for.

It’s noble to be ready to die for the nation, but crooks tend to be a tenacious lot, and may continue living long after all the heroes have been murdered or have passed away. Alongside the readiness to die for one’s country should be the determination to fight for reforms, to strengthen institutions and excise the rot that is weakening the nation.