ATTENDANCE at the latest Trillion Peso March on Feb. 25 was a faint echo of the 100,000-strong rally last year, suggesting that apathy — or a sense of resignation — has set in over the flood-control bribery scandal that had rocked the government.
This is unfortunate, given the revolting scale of the corruption exposed by President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. himself, Public Works Secretary Vince Dizon, and a slew of congressional investigations. After all that, the principal figure in the scandal, resigned lawmaker Zaldy Co, remains ensconced — by the president’s own recent admission — in Portugal, where Philippine authorities cannot touch him.
Bold promises from the president, Dizon and the Office of the Ombudsman that “big fish” would be in jail by Christmas 2025 have gone unfulfilled, three months into 2026. Three senators tagged in hearings at the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee still sit comfortably in the chamber’s halls, protected from accountability by their political power and their colleagues. The president’s cousin, former speaker Martin Romualdez, has suffered no consequence for being linked to the scandal. His stepping down last year as leader of the House of Representatives was an act of political theater, rather than a true display of accountability.
Last week, Navotas Rep. Toby Tiangco reminded us that Co remains at large, and that government agencies that are supposed to execute a warrant for his arrest have been silent.
In a statement on March 7, Tiangco said he filed House Resolution 808, which urges the House leadership to convene the Committee of the Whole and conduct a public inquiry, in aid of legislation, into the status of the arrest warrant against Co, and to recommend legislative measures, if necessary.
Tiangco questioned whether the authorities are still looking for Co, with many asking if there is “no sense of urgency” to find and hold him accountable.
He said there was a need for clear-cut guidelines for enforcing arrest warrants when a subject is outside Philippine jurisdiction, citing the conflicting positions of the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) and the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) in implementing Co’s arrest warrant.
The “DILG earlier said [the] DFA is the agency primarily responsible for ensuring that Co will be successfully prosecuted before our court. The DFA, however, clarified that the enforcement of legal processes against Co involves a ‘whole-of-government approach.’ Whose agency should be responsible for cases such as this?” Tiangco said.
The lawmaker also emphasized the need to determine whether legislative gaps allow the rich and powerful to evade legal processes and hide in foreign jurisdictions with which the Philippines has no extradition treaty.
“There appears to be a compelling need to determine whether existing laws sufficiently define institutional cooperation and accountability on the service and execution of warrants and bringing before our jurisdiction politically exposed persons who leave Philippine territory,” Tiangco said.
He also emphasized that the inability to immediately enforce an arrest warrant against a high-profile individual allegedly hiding abroad raises serious questions about which government agency bears responsibility. Department of Justice (DOJ) officials; the secretaries of the DILG and DFA; the head of the National Bureau of Investigation; the chief of the Philippine National Police; the head of the Bureau of Immigration; and Portugal’s ambassador to the Philippines will be invited to the hearing.
“Given the magnitude of the alleged flood control anomalies, there is a compelling need for the cooperation and active involvement of multiple agencies to effect legal process against fugitives from justice,” Tiangco said.
He raises valid points that must be addressed, as the rich and powerful suspects continue to evade justice by the simple expedient of hiding out in another country.
In the flood-control bribery mess, accountability has so far been limited to a few high-profile private contractors and midlevel government officials. No sitting lawmaker has been arrested.
In the Senate, the Blue Ribbon Committee, led by Sen. Panfilo Lacson, is struggling to move its partial report to the plenary. At the midpoint of March, only four out of the required nine signatures have been secured. Notable holdouts have been accused of intentionally delaying the report to protect allies.
Earlier this month, a group of lawyers petitioned the Supreme Court to compel the Senate to release a copy of the panel’s draft report, which significantly recommends that charges be filed against three incumbent senators for their alleged role in the flood-control bribery scandal.
But even if they are successful, this Senate, divided along political lines, has long lost its credibility for upholding justice. If the hopes of exacting true accountability are not to fade away completely, the DOJ and the Office of the Ombudsman must pursue their mission with greater urgency and dispatch.