Retired Supreme Court Justice Andres Reyes, chair of the Independent Commission for Infrastructure (ICI), is the guest of honor and speaker of the Manila Overseas Press Club (MOPC), Asia’s oldest press club, tonight at 6 at the Fairmont Makati Hotel ballroom.
Justice Andy is expected to present an update on the work of the ICI, a creation of President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. to investigate the biggest corruption scandal of our time – the P1.7-trillion flood control scam of the past 10 years, including P1 trillion lost to our biggest criminal syndicate during the first three years of his administration.
The flood control syndicate is our biggest criminal syndicate. I haven’t heard of a crime syndicate that stole P1.7 trillion from our pockets over the past 10 years. Except the flood control syndicate. Since flood control funding is a creation of Congress, this makes Congress – both the Senate and the House of Representatives – THE BIGGEST CRIMINAL SYNDICATE.
But how do you make accountable and overthrow a syndicate that is duly elected by the people? “Cannot, cannot,” my Indonesian friend would like to say.
Maybe, ICI chair Justice Reyes has some ideas.
Corruption and education are our two biggest crises. To his credit, Marcos Jr. is taking the bull by the horns, confronting the problems head on. If the President succeeds, he will have fully redeemed the legacy of his father, the strongman Ferdinand Edralin Marcos Sr. And BBM himself will be enshrined in the pantheon of great presidents. BBM is the great disruptor.
They say the 68-year-old BBM is weak and might even be sick. So far this is what has happened or is happening under a weak and sick Marcos Jr. (I am listing suspects ensnared by the BBM dragnet):
Removed from high office, unceremoniously: Sen. Francis “Chiz” Escudero, as Senate president; Leyte Rep. Ferdinand Martin Romualdez, as House speaker; former Chief Justice Lucas Bersamin, as executive secretary; Manuel Bonoan, as secretary of public works and highways, and Amenah Pangandaman, as secretary of budget and management.
Vice President Sara Duterte resigned as secretary of the Department of Education (DepEd) and was impeached. She wants to be president, in 2028. The Senate, under SP Escudero, did not act forthwith on her impeachment trial, giving an opening to the Supreme Court to declare Sara’s impeachment unconstitutional. If you ask me, the Supreme Court has no business meddling into the impeachment process. Reason: Supreme Court justices are impeachable officials. Allowing them to define, refine or diminish Congress’ rules on impeachment is like allowing a suspect to tell the judge, “Hey, judge, this is how you should try me, and don’t question me for it!” Bwisit, di ba?
Under BBM, the following have been arrested and jailed: former president Rodrigo Roa Duterte (for crimes against humanity, killing between 6,000 and 30,000 Filipinos during his time as Davao mayor and as president for six years); pastor Apollo Quiboloy of the Kingdom of Jesus Christ (for sex crimes); former Negros Oriental congressman Arnolfo Teves Jr. (murder and terrorism) and Sarah Discaya, the poster girl of flood control corruption (for corruption, bribery, falsification of public documents, malversation; her offenses are non-bailable).
A number of senior DPWH engineers have also been arrested and are in jail. They will either “sing” (to implicate the big fishes) or plead innocence. But their paper trail is damning.
The International Criminal Court (ICC) in the Netherlands has disclosed eight alleged co-conspirators of Digong Duterte who “shared a common plan or agreement to neutralize alleged criminals in the Philippines” and for being perceived or alleged to be linked with drug use, sale or production through violent crimes, including murder. Two of the eight are incumbent senators, former national police chief Bato dela Rosa (in hiding since Nov. 11, 2025) and Christopher “Bong” Go.
The fugitives from justice, with arrest warrants, are led by former Ako Bicol party-list congressman Zaldy Co, the chief operating officer of the flood control syndicate in the House of Representatives, and Charlie “Atong” Ang (for mass murder).
Also, three incumbent senators have been linked by witnesses to the flood control scandal: Escudero, Jinggoy Estrada and Joel Villanueva (ironically, Joel started his political life as a Bible-quoting anti-corruption campaigner; yet he has been accused of massive corruption while in public office, not once, but twice already).
On the education front, let me quote super analyst Joey Salceda:
?“For the first time in Philippine history, education spending meets the UNESCO benchmark of four to six percent of GDP. Secretary (Sonny) Angara himself says it is the largest increase he has seen in his entire career in politics. That is P1.015 trillion for DepEd alone, P135 billion for state universities and colleges and P20 billion for TESDA.
“What will the money buy? For one, 24,964 new classrooms at P65 billion, the most ambitious school building target since 2020. Textbook procurement will cover over 100 million learning materials. The school-based feeding program has grown from P3 billion in 2022 to over P25 billion in 2026, covering 200 feeding days and reaching 4.8 million learners. The ARAL Program receives P9 billion to hire some 448,000 tutors for children who have fallen behind in reading and mathematics. Over 100,000 teachers will be promoted under the Expanded Career Progression system. And DepEd is establishing an AI Center with P100 million in operational budget, with curriculum review assistance from MIT.
“But the real systemic fix is structural. In August 2025, the President issued Administrative Order No. 36 creating the Education and Workforce Development Group.
“For the first time, DepEd, CHED and TESDA sit under a single Cabinet cluster chaired by the President himself. This is not a coordinating committee that meets quarterly and issues press releases. This is the institutional answer to the silo problem that EDCOM 2 identified as the root cause of policy fragmentation.”
BBM will fix both the corruption and education crises. How is that for being weak?
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