EDITORIAL - ‘Sumbong sa Pangulo’

Doubling down on his “mahiya naman kayo” message to crooks in government and their cohorts in the private sector, President Marcos released yesterday a list of 15 private contractors that he said have cornered a fifth of all flood control projects nationwide since 2022.

The projects amount to about P100 billion of the P545 billion allocated for flood control for the past three years, the President said in a press conference at Malacañang complete with a PowerPoint presentation.

He released the list as part of the launch of his “Sumbong sa Pangulo” program, urging the people to report to the Office of the President possible anomalous deals, defective flood control and other public works projects and other questionable activities in government.

While no one is being accused of wrongdoing at this point, the President found it “disturbing” that only a handful of construction companies had been rewarded with flood control projects. He noted that over 6,000 projects in the past three years lacked specifics on exactly what flood mitigation works were implemented.

The public is even more disturbed that after over half a trillion pesos in people’s money went to flood control, cataclysmic flooding continues to bring death and destruction all over the country.

Where did our taxes go? And was that just a preliminary list of contractors?

After several contractors were named, the next thing awaited by the public is the identification of their owners and the government officials linked to the companies.

Pocketing billions meant for flood control has resulted in the loss of lives and colossal damage to property. Those behind it deserve the stiffest punishment.

People will be willing to help in this campaign, but the success of the program will depend on whether complaints will be acted upon, and whether anyone will be punished.

In his press conference yesterday, the President promised that there will be no sacred cows in his crackdown on corruption. If his allies are found to be involved, he said he owes his loyalty to the people and will act accordingly.

The people will hold him to this promise.