BBM's proverbial Pandora's Box

The exposé made by President BBM in his fourth SONA last July 28, 2025 has opened a can of worms or, if you will, a Pandora's Box with far-reaching implications and consequences. It has caused the firing of a former DPWH secretary, Manuel Bonoan, and led both houses of Congress to conduct their respective legislative investigations in aid of legislation. Then, from that presidential exposé, all the stench and shenanigans came out.

Both the Cambridge and the Merriam-Webster's dictionaries tell us that the expression "opening a Pandora's Box" is a figure of speech which means unearthing or exposing hidden troubles or evil things. According to Greek mythology, Pandora was the first mortal woman breathed into being by Hephaestus, the god of fire. The gods in Mount Olympus gave Pandora her gifts of language, of craftsmanship, and of emotions. From Zeus, she received two gifts: the gift of curiosity and a heavy box screwed tightly and never to be opened because it was said to contain all kinds of troubles and all sorts of misfortunes.

The other metaphor for the presidential exposé is opening a can of worms. The president did open a can of worms. From his series of "mahiya naman kayo" exhortations, the whole nation started to ask questions about the alleged treacherous budget insertions reportedly perpetrated by a few senators and congressmen, expectedly under the baton of the Senate president and the speaker respectively and who, without being open to the House plenary and the Senate plenary, surreptitiously and hideously inserted billions of flood control allocations and other public works.

Because of what the president opened, the whole nation came across with the Julius Babao and Korina Sanchez interviews of the Discaya couple who owned admittedly no less than nine construction companies and about 40 expensive vehicles, at least 28 of which were luxury vehicles like Rolls-Royce, Mercedes-Benz, and Cadillac, bought at the jaw-dropping cost of between ?2 million and more than ?40 million each. If not for the opening of Pandora's Box, we would not have known that some district engineers and minor functionaries would frequent casinos and lose millions of pesos per day to gamble.

The nation would have been kept ignorant of and clueless about the ghost flood-control projects in Bulacan, which were inspected by the president himself. We would not have any idea about how the poor people of Hagonoy and other coastal Bulacan municipalities have suffered for too long because of constant flooding while there had been billions worth of flood-control projects that should have been supposedly constructed. The DPWH secretary was silent, the regional director was silent, the district engineer did not say anything. The contractors were paid multi-millions and COA was not heard from.

The Cebuanos were made without any knowledge that a sole proprietorship from Dumanjug, which used to sell cheap lumber and bamboo housing materials, and with a very small capital, could bag multi-billion pesos’ worth of public works projects. Thanks to BBM for opening the Pandora's Box and giving the people a glimpse on how DPWH bureaucrats and certain influential congressmen, as well as their favored contractors have allegedly conspired and confederated, with expected and evident malice and bad faith, willfully, knowingly, and intentionally and allegedly stole billions in public funds with their ghost projects and substandard public works.

For all his imperfections and inadequacies, for the alleged sins of his father and mother, I would give credit to BBM for declaring war against the anomalies in the DPWH flood control project collaborators. Unlike the vice president who keeps on travelling, campaigning for 2028, and raising issues against the administration, the president has at least done what is right in raising red flags against the 15 contractors and others. The vice president has not done any positive and constructive. For opening the Pandora's Box and a big can of worms, the president has done a huge service to the people.

I am neither pro-Marcos nor pro-Duterte. But I give credit where credit is due. I commend BBM for opening Pandora's Box about the public works imbroglio. At least, I know now that he is not a part of the big syndicate. I cannot say the same for the vice president. She has a lot to explain to the whole nation herself. She has not opened any can of worms, which she should. She has many things to fear.