EDITORIAL - Waiting for reforms

They are presumed innocent until proven guilty, and they will have their day in court.

Still, the accusations being hurled against several former and incumbent high government officials should accelerate efforts to prevent a repeat of the alleged wrongdoing, through systemic reforms and swift justice.

The nation was first stunned by the magnitude of the thievery during the congressional investigations on flood control anomalies. Those tables piled high with cash – hard-earned money collected from the people and pocketed by looters – became the iconic images of brazen greed.

In the past days, the accusations before the Senate and the House of Representatives have been reaffirmed, this time before the anti-graft court.

A long-time aide of ex-Department of Public Works and Highways undersecretary Roberto Bernardo testified before the Sandiganbayan that he was instructed by his former boss to deliver boxes and suitcases packed with cash to Sen. Jinggoy Estrada, former senator Bong Revilla, former DPWH chief Manuel Bonoan, deceased DPWH undersecretary Maria Catalina Cabral, former education undersecretary Trygve Olaivar and Carleen Yap-Villa, a former Senate aide of Nancy Binay.

Vergel Niño Garcia said he had worked as a personal aide of Bernardo for 20 years. Bernardo had testified before the Senate Blue Ribbon committee that a total of P250 million was delivered to Revilla in February 2025, weeks before the midterm elections.

The deliveries were allegedly received by aides or drivers of the officials. Garcia testified at the bail hearing on the malversation case filed against Revilla.

Similar accusations have been hurled against other top officials, among them former Senate president Francis Escudero and former speaker Martin Romualdez.

The stories that have emerged indicate an entrenched and systematic process of pocketing billions of pesos in public funds, through a path that starts from the executive to the legislature, with the loot shared with crooks in the private sector.

Whether this system remains in place needs close monitoring. There were some reforms in the crafting of the 2026 General Appropriations Act, but questionable items were retained.

Among these are the unprogrammed appropriations – described by critics as the new congressional pork barrel. Nearly all the politicized ayuda programs were also retained, including what 72 medical groups have denounced as a health pork barrel, the Medical Assistance to Indigent and Financially Incapacitated Patients.

Since this unprecedented corruption scandal erupted, the nation has heard a lot of noise about the need for change. People are still waiting for the noise to translate into structural reforms that would be difficult to overturn.