Corruption’s fallout

It’s mid-November, and expectations are rising about cases being filed in court related to corruption in flood control and other infrastructure projects.

The court indictments are needed not just to diffuse the outrage that is driving mass protests set for Nov. 30, and the rallies set in two venues beginning this Sunday, spearheaded by the Iglesia Ni Cristo (INC) to call for accountability, according to the organizers.

Apart from assuaging public anger, credible court cases are also needed to show that the government is serious in its anti-corruption crackdown, by punishing crooks and implementing meaningful, long-lasting reforms. These measures are needed to rescue our economy and prevent our country from turning into Asia’s basket case.

Consider: gross domestic product growth slowed to 4.0 percent in the third quarter, the lowest in four years or since the height of the COVID pandemic. That figure makes it unlikely that the government will achieve its GDP target range of 5.5 to 6.5 percent for the year.

Meanwhile, net foreign direct investment inflows plunged by 40.5 percent last August from the same month in 2024, and by 22.5 percent for the first eight months of this year.

The peso is weakening, bucking regional trends, although economists are divided on whether this is a plus or minus for the country.

With the freeze on public works projects, public spending has been drastically cut, pulling down GDP growth. The construction industry has taken a major hit, including its workers. The sector accounts for a large segment of national production, and any slowdown also affects consumption, which is bad news for our consumer-driven economy. Consumption in the third quarter slowed to 4.1 percent.

Political instability arising from the corruption scandal is adding to investor jitters.

It wouldn’t be so bad if neighboring countries suffer from similar problems. But we’re in one of the most highly competitive regions in the world – with states whose citizens have a strong sense of nationhood, who need not be reminded about the importance of love for one’s country and the folly of greed and selfishness.

In this scandal, we suffer from comparisons with the speedy, decisive responses of our neighbors to corruption. Heads truly roll, and swiftly, all the way to the highest levels of government. Crooks are arrested and jailed even before conviction; no bail for humanitarian reasons or whatever sorry excuse lawyers and crooked magistrates can cook up for VIP defendants. VIPs? They are not spared from the stiffest penalties, including capital punishment.

In such countries, institutional weaknesses that allowed the corruption are corrected, to reassure everyone that there will be no repeat, and that reforms will go beyond cosmetic.

Trust in our government is so abysmal that even the declaration of a year-long state of national calamity has raised concerns that it could open the doors to more corruption.

This is why it is so important for the Office of the Ombudsman and the Department of Justice to file strong cases ASAP in connection with the flood control mess.

The anti-corruption rallies set by the INC in Manila’s Rizal Park and by the United People’s Initiative (UPI) – a coalition that includes retired military officers – at the people power monument on EDSA intend to push for accountability of people higher than the engineers of the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) in the infrastructure scandal.

Former Quezon City congressman Michael Defensor, who will be joining the UPI rally, admitted that the messaging of the protests is a bit muddled when it comes to the objective.

Some groups, Defensor indicated, want lawmakers led by former speaker Martin Romualdez and Senate president Francis Escudero to be indicted forthwith along with resigned Ako Bicol party-list congressman Zaldy Co. Others want culpability to go all the way to President Marcos. Still others want to install a junta.

In case of national leadership change, BBM’s constitutional successor is Vice President Sara Duterte – a scenario being avoided by the organizers of the Nov. 30 protest. The VP’s culpability in corruption allegations hurled against her isn’t being raised by the INC-UPI rally organizers.

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Defensor admitted to “Storycon” on One News yesterday that he contributed logistics support for the UPI rally.

He shrugged off the different objectives as a normal thing in protest movements. Defensor had introduced to Sen. Rodante Marcoleta ex-Marine Orly Guteza, who told the Senate that he had delivered suitcases of cash to the homes of Co and Romualdez.

Defensor insisted to Storycon yesterday that Guteza is under the protection of Marine colleagues, who were reportedly appalled by the corruption that led to failed flood control projects in Bicol, Co’s bailiwick.

Yesterday, Ombudsman Jesus Crispin Remulla said that within this week or next, the first batch of flood control-related cases would be filed in court – against Zaldy Co and his family’s Sunwest Inc. along with several mostly former DPWH officials involved in a ghost project in Naujan, Oriental Mindoro.

The charge is expected to be for malversation through falsification of public documents, involving amounts that will make the offense non-bailable and warranting life imprisonment upon conviction.

Indictment in court will mean arrest warrants can be issued. Apart from seeing former DPWH officials behind bars and denied bail, it will allow the government to seek either the extradition of Co or a red notice that will allow the International Criminal Police Organization to carry out his arrest by Interpol member states.

It remains to be seen whether such developments will blunt the planned mass protests.

For investors, anything less than speedy prosecution and conviction, combined with sweeping institutional reforms, will be taken with a grain of salt.