Clogged

One moment, Alex Eala’s brilliant tennis brought us positive international attention. The next moment, the sight of our waterways clogged with trash became a global spectacle.

One day, we had glory. The next, ignominy.

President Marcos Jr. was compelled to leave the comforts of the Palace for a photo opportunity at the Baclaran channel. While looking at the mess, he observed that the accumulated trash must have come from somewhere else.

That was such a weak statement to make. The spectacle was a sparkling statement of failure in governance. A nation that cannot deal with its trash cannot fashion its own progress.

The public works secretary later described the hoard of trash accumulating in our waterways as a “crisis.” Well, yes. But how did we get to this point despite San Miguel Corporation’s valiant efforts to dredge the rivers at its own expense?

All that trash is symptomatic. It is just one link in a chain of failures. It is the icon of a more general malaise.

While national government officials scratched their heads, one district representative stepped forward with proposed solutions. Las Piñas Rep. Mark Anthony Santos is calling for a comprehensive, Metro Manila-wide crackdown on littering and illegal garbage disposal.

Santos proposes a uniform anti-littering ordinance among the component cities of the National Capital Region as well as the establishment of dedicated “garbage police units” to ensure implementation of the common ordinance. The problem, he observes, can no longer be fully addressed through occasional (and usually performative) clean-up drives.

The “garbage police,” says Santos, should operate separately from the existing village patrol force. It must be specifically trained and deputized to monitor and enforce anti-littering and solid waste management rules. This force must be empowered to issue environmental citation tickets and the proper processing of violators.

The absence of common rules across this sprawling urban tangle, he observes, contributes to the problem. This is what makes enactment of a uniform ordinance necessary.

The proposed uniform ordinance for Metro Manila could draw from RA 9003 or the Ecological Solid Waste Management Act. This law defines littering and improper waste disposal as offenses.

An empowered law enforcement unit and a uniform ordinance should help in policing the small water channels across the metropolitan area. Garbage clogging these channels have long contributed to the city-wide flooding when it rains.

Beyond the concrete proposals made by Rep. Santos, poor garbage collection efficiency is also a factor. It is not mere urban legend that local government officials profit from garbage collection contracts. There is a political economy to all this trash.

Inquisition

The involvement of legislators in the massive looting of taxpayer money through public works scams is something we should all be concerned about. But this should not become a bogeyman for politicians to attack each other with unfounded accusations.

It is easy to condemn legislators for “insertions” made in the national budget. But it is quite another thing to prove that corruption has happened. “Insertions” and kickbacks are two separate things.

It is easy to suggest that a legislator profited from amending budget provisions or adding expenditure items. The accused is hard-put to parry the accusations. Elementary logic teaches us: it is not possible to disprove the negative.

Often the accusations stick even after the facts have cleared the accused. This is especially true if political discussion and media coverage of it becomes scandal-driven.

Sen. Panfilo Lacson styled himself as a graft-buster. He has increasingly targeted legislative colleagues who caught his ire. Lately, however, he has repeatedly equated “amendments” with “insertions.” That failure takes its political toll. It taints every legislative intervention with the color of corruption.

Sen. Miguel Zubiri felt the need to qualify amendments introduced by legislators. The Constitution, he points out, precisely vests Congress the power of the purse so that its deliberations gives the national budget its final form. Unless congressional inputs are recognized, the legislative branch becomes simply the rubber stamp of the budget prepared by the executive.

Zubiri was dragged into the controversy after Manuel Bonoan mentioned in his Sandiganbayan testimony that all senators were given projects under the so-called “leadership fund” – a virtual pork barrel controlled by the DPWH secretary. Zubiri claims all his budget amendments went through the Senate finance committee and was discussed openly at the bicameral conference.

Lacson accused Sen. Pia Cayetano of P4.7 billion in insertions in the 2025 budget. In a subsequent interview on radio, however, he admitted his office has not checked out how much of this money was implemented. Furthermore, he admitted nothing shows the senator was involved in any anomalous project. He hopes, he said, she wasn’t.

His accusations, in this case, exactly followed the playbook of the McCarthyite witch hunt in the 50s that ruined the careers of hundreds wildly accused of communist sympathies. Accuse first. Investigate later. The named personalities were left utterly defenseless against a rampaging accuser.

By all means, we must keep our vigilance against the theft of public funds by the powerful. But we must also guard against an unbridled inquisition in the name of an anti-graft crusade.

Lacson is not shy about making accusations. But he needs to be more responsible in the claims he makes. The grandstand is not worth the carcasses of unjustly ruined political careers.

We do need to rebuild trust in government. This is best done through prudent utterance.