Another OPM?

Gross domestic product growth continues to decelerate, slowing to just 2.3 percent year-on-year, the lowest outside the pandemic years since 2009.

Meanwhile, the national debt as of end-June hit a record high of P19 trillion, for a debt-to-GDP ratio of 66 percent – a 33-year high last seen in 1993.

Since the go-to response of the Marcos administration is to throw ayuda at every problem, that debt is likely to balloon further.

Business confidence is down, inflation has dampened consumption while the peso is at its weakest ever.

External factors aren’t entirely to blame. Economic experts and multilateral lenders have pointed to the paralysis in public spending due to the corruption scandal as a major factor in the lower-than-expected GDP growth in the second quarter.

With the problem identified, they also offer solutions: the long-running call to strengthen the rule of law and regulatory framework, plus the new call to show genuine resolve in dealing with the corruption scandal involving flood control and other infrastructure projects, facilitated by creative budgeting.

In all the suggested solutions, the government has been faltering.

Even in the biggest message of President Marcos’ recent State of the Nation Address – the prosecution of his once-favorite cousin, with relatives and friends not spared – the message has been suffering a succession of blows.

First, administration Senate bet Bong Revilla was allowed to post bail for the normally non-bailable malversation of public funds.

Ombudsman Jesus Crispin Remulla had said that malversation, besides being non-bailable and warranting life in prison, is easier to prove than plunder. Perhaps it’s also easier to fix – something that Remulla implied when he said in public that someone had worked to secure Revilla’s bail, “mukhang trinabaho.”

The reaction of the two Sandiganbayan justices who approved the bail – Fritz Bryn Anthony delos Santos and Ronald Moreno (outvoting Third Division chair Karl Miranda) – boiled down to, sticks and stones may break our bones, but words will never hurt us.

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Revilla isn’t the only one who has slipped out of the ombudsman’s grasp. Remulla’s bid to get former public works chief Manuel Bonoan to turn state witness was also rejected by the Sandiganbayan’s Second Division. Remulla had said he planned to use Bonoan as a witness against former House speaker Martin Romualdez.

As the stormy workweek drew to a close, the ombudsman suffered yet another blow: four of the 18 self-proclaimed bagmen of former Ako Bicol “congtractor” Zaldy Co, whose testimony Remulla had also hoped to use against Romualdez, retracted their statements.

The four claimed they were given prepared statements by the ombudsman, which they signed in exchange for financial compensation. Remulla denied this and openly expressed suspicion that Romualdez was behind the recantation. There are video recordings showing that the four freely cooperated in the presence of assistant ombudsmen, Remulla added.

Why the four would need to be forced to sign affidavits that merely affirmed their original accusations against Romualdez is a mystery. Those allegations of delivering cash-filled suitcases totaling P805 billion to lucky folks led by Romualdez, BBM and his son Sandro were hurled by the 18 way back in February.

On Friday, one of the 18 bagmen, George Villanon Jr., said they were offered P20 million to P25 million each to retract their statements.

Villanon did not say who offered those amounts, which I hesitate to describe as huge, considering the billions alleged to have been pocketed by the looters.

The National Bureau of Investigation vowed to investigate the matter. It was unclear though whose accusation the NBI would pursue – that of the four bagmen or Remulla’s. The NBI, after all, is part of the executive branch, whose head and appointing power is BBM.

But at the rate the statements of the 18, together or individually, have been shifting, their stories have become so polluted the probative value has been reduced to zero. As Pinoys like to say, it’s just storytelling a lie. They should just be slapped with charges of perjury.

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Romualdez did promise a spirited fight to prove his avowed innocence. He had ominously warned: “I’m telling everyone now, I will not go quietly and I will not go alone. I will not be the fall guy for other people’s corruption.” Who the “other people” are, he has yet to say.

He has denied receiving kickbacks, and has maintained that he had nothing to do with the institutionalized looting of the national budget.

Zaldy Co could be the best witness on this and against Romualdez. But we all know that Co has impressively eluded being forced to return to the Philippines, and is instead cooling his heels in Paris.

Another accuser of Romualdez who has gone missing is retired Marine sergeant Orly Guteza. Remember him? He was the original storyteller of the cash-filled suitcase deliveries. This was way back in September last year. The notary public whose signature was on Guteza’s affidavit later claimed her signature was forged, but Sen. Panfilo Lacson said it didn’t matter because Guteza had sworn to his testimony in person before the Senate Blue Ribbon committee.

We’re waiting for Remulla’s next step in going after Romualdez, and fulfilling BBM’s SONA promise.

It must be stressed though that BBM did not explicitly promise to put his cousin behind bars or even secure conviction. All he said was that the ombudsman was set to file piles of cases against “the former speaker” whose name he could not even mention. BBM also admitted that it pained him, although “kailangan nating gawin ang tama” – we have to do what’s right.

At this point, doing what’s right is starting to sound like the fairy tale about the big fish not having a merry Christmas 2025. Or the original OPM, oh promise me: rice (not subsidized) at P20 a kilo.