Best gift for all Filipinos

By Alex P. Vidal

“Punishment is justice for the unjust.” – Saint Augustine

IF Chiz Escudero, Joel Villanueva, Martin Romualdez, Zaldy Co, Bong Revilla, Jinggoy Estrada and all other suspected flood control project anomaly thieves will be prosecuted, arrested and locked in the Quezon City jail provided by the Department of Interior of Local Government (DILG), this event will be the Marcos Jr. administration’s best Christmas gift for all Filipinos.

If the mass arrest, estimated to involve more or less 200 wrongdoers that would reportedly include senators, congressmen, DPWH employees and contractors, will be implemented in early 2026, it will be the government’s best New Year’s gift for the nation.

The people are itching to see the Independent Commission for Infrastructure (ICI) conclude its suspense-filled investigations on the multi-billion anomalies that romped off in September 2025.

They have become impatient as days go by with no single thief being manacled and placed behind bars; they want immediate results and they want it now.

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The more the investigations drag on, the more that people are losing faith in the ICI’s capacity to dispense justice; their trust in the justice system continues to erode if what they see and hear are merely powderkegs in the form of press statements, not flood control project criminals spending actual time behind bars.

Especially that the ICI has chosen to conduct its investigations and hearings behind closed doors despite overwhelming uproar from public to hold them “live” so that the taxpayers can closely monitor and be given updates about the proceedings.

People are tired and bored by episodes where ordinary individuals are arrested and photographed in the police stations like hardened criminals after stealing only a can of banana catsup and a bottle of peanut butter while the likes of Escudero and other accused of committing plunder continue receiving fat salaries and holding office in air-conditioned rooms paid by the taxpayers.

People are fed up with the country’s double-standard of justice where the poor are always in the receiving end and the rich and famous always unabashedly running away with the pie’s largest slice and get away with it.

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THE easiest way to escape prosecution and jail if you’re a corrupt public official in the Philippines is to become a “son of God.”

It may sound sacrilegious for a thief to claim as “son of God” but what a heck.

If it’s the only way to wiggle out from mess and circumvent the law, the likes of Joel Villanueva will not hesitate to even claim they belong to heaven and not on earth.

And many people believe in false prophets who ride on two horses—politics and religion—and enrich themselves while in public office.

A false prophet is a person who spreads false teachings or messages while claiming to speak the Word of God.

False prophets also spoke on behalf of false gods in the Bible. False prophets functioned in their prophetic role illegitimately or for the purpose of deception. The Bible denounces false prophets for leading people astray.

Jesus went on to explain the grave consequences of being a false prophet: “Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Thus, by their fruit you will recognize them. Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles?’ Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’” (Matthew 7:19–23).

(The author, who is now based in New York City, used to be the editor-in-chief of two leading daily newspapers in Iloilo, Philippines.—Ed)