Outrage and the obvious: DPWH fiasco

By Reni M. Valenzuela

Nothing can beat unrighteousness in a nation more powerfully than righteous indignation. Our wrath is justified.

Outraged we all are over greed and corruption in the country, not just over China’s intrusion into our maritime territory. It’s a coming of age that is happening now, at last, for the Filipino people—hopefully enough for all to know who to vote for in future elections. But what holds our officials back from doing what’s right and gallant?

Get rid of “insertions” and the so-called CONFI (confidential and intelligence funds) and “pork barrel” funds in the national budget, and you minimize substantially, if not solve entirely, crookedness, subtlety, and animality in “governance.” I am talking to you, Mr. Juan dela Cruz, not to crooks.

One effective way to stop plunder or robbery from the nation’s coffers is to jail the corrupt. Let them all rot in prisons just as other nations are doing to their own unwanted wolves, sharks, vultures, and crocs in their respective governments. But why can’t you do it, dear fellows, to local crooks in the halls of power? Obvious.

Obviously, why is Congress (with some quarters) raising hell about the Discayas’ alleged “exclusion” of the officials of the previous administration during the Duterte presidency such that they appear to be wanting to demolish what the couple have divulged altogether and render everything they said worthless? Why are they so eager and hell-bent to destroy the credibility of the confessing couple? Suspicious.

Note that Curlee and Sara were just starting to reveal what they know with the expectation that they would reveal more later, of course. We should be glad/thankful about it in some ways, whatever measure of skepticism we have about their testimonies. The whole truth can be juiced up from them in its purity, depending on the ways, motives, intents, and truthfulness of the people who grind them.

Or it would be just like the stupid Israelites all over again, going round and round in circles for 40 years to reach the promised land when they could have reached it in just 11 days.

Alas, the Lower House, in its hearing yesterday, through Rep. Gerville Luistro, appeared to be belying and depicting as useless even the partial, incomplete, and flawed truths that the couple are trying to expose. What logic, what examples, and what sense were they saying and asking in that said hearing?

Could there be a big someone or some big colleagues in their chamber who is/are in the steering wheel that maneuvers the driving and scurrying for sidetracking purposes—to ultimately distance and exculpate themselves from their complicities and involvements, major involvements at that?

Obviously, we may all say that the Discayas are guilty, as indeed they are or as they appear to be, but they certainly are not the most guilty—it’s the hoodlums in the government who partnered with them that are. Aren’t they?

Will any of the greedy private contractors be able to do what they’ve done without them being in cahoots with the big, bigger, and biggest thieves in the government to defraud the government?

Obviously, who will you blame more if in case a gang of robbers barged into your house and looted everything therein because your housemaids and houseboys are tied up with the robbers? C’mon. Where should our outrage be directed more in the ongoing brazen DPWH “battle royal”?

Obviously, where is prudence in all of the hearings and grilling of guilty “outsiders” by our legislators? Where are the guilty “insiders”? Out of track. Out of mind. Shielded.

Look, businesswoman Janet Napoles is in jail until now because of her role in the multibillion-peso pork barrel scam during President Noynoy Aquino’s time. But where were the real masterminds? Where were the loot chieftains in the government and their cohorts in the government? Where were the “housemaids” and “houseboys”? Grabe.

Obviously, Filipinos are “shocked” by the revelations of kickbacks and bribery in the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) when we all know for a fact that such hideousness has been the standard (not substandard) trick in that sick agency since time immemorial. Weird.

Obviously, the Discaya couple did not divulge completely the truth regarding their cut-earnings or loot from the government’s infrastructure and flood control projects through which they have crazily enriched themselves, alas, at the expense of the nation and our people. Cunning.

Obviously, the main purpose of Curlee and Sara Discaya in coming out with their exposés is (first and foremost) to save face, glitz up looks, and lighten their crimes for lighter punishment. Self-serving.

However, they can be reliable and credible “resource” persons for the independent investigating commission if they are compelled to. Take them as star witnesses for them to reveal more and be led to reveal credibly, bravely, and honestly, and expose the chiefs and masterminds in the government. But don’t let the two get away with their loot, looting, and lying. Ikulong po silang kasama ng mga kurakot sa gobyerno. Fair.

Obviously, the corrupt, blind, and inane wouldn’t want the Discayas and other whistleblowers to become star witnesses for reasons too dispensable to say. The guilty and unpatriotic among the robbers (suspected or otherwise) that were named might just be biding their time to go after the former. Some courageous lives could be in danger.

Obviously, all of the confessors (thus far) from the DPWH, its district and main office employees, and the Discayas, down to the ordinary people, need to be protected by the government if the government is wise or sane and serious enough in getting to the “bottomest” of the bottom of ignominies and thieveries in the DPWH, in Congress, Commission on Audit, courts, Judiciary, Local Government Units, and other agencies and offices of the Executive branch—not to mention the police and military.

Obviously, whistleblowers need protection as much as we all need to unearth and establish the truth, identify and judge the culprits, and punish and jail them all. Sequester the wealth of crooks, for their wealth is not theirs. But why listen to those who have ire to grind against the coming of light?

Obviously, there is no way to go for those who already got identified and linked to the anomalies but to deny and denounce to high heavens the allegations against them in the strongest possible terms and with utmost vehemence and drama. Entertaining. This includes the others who have yet to issue their own versions of denial, and the many more ones, of course, who have yet to be named. Abangan.

Obviously, the DPWH people who have willingly/voluntarily testified in Congress hearings would not risk their lives by divulging what they know only to tell lies, concoct stories, and present fake photos. Heroic.

Obviously, many of our senators are getting to be awakened to the reality of political filth within their colored chamber by bonding together as one unpainted public servant bloc to unseat dubious, ambitious, deceptive, selfish, highly politicized chamber leaders. Heartening.

Obviously, the sudden change of leadership in the Senate was due (mainly) to the ongoing DPWH fiasco in light of the involvement allegations against certain senators in the anomalies—not for anything else, contrary to what Senators Sotto and Lacson said in an interview shortly after their coup d’état. Trapo. Congratulations, though.

Obviously, our legislators must have developed “intimacy” with each other such that they hate offending and hurting each other even amid brazen, diabolic official acts by their colleagues or by any of them. Moronic (or “logo” religiosity).

Obviously, they would rather hurt the nation than their “kabaro” as they have become too “closed” to rebuke one another and too “solid” to protect each other from wrongdoings as if they are goons in fraternities. Gangsterism (or “logo” protectionism).

Obviously, some of the members of the Lower House who are investigating the DPWH anomalies are forthright and sincere in what they are doing. Notwithstanding, however, that the integrity of their investigations would always be seen merely as a “show” unless there is a change in leadership among the biggies that lord over them in their chamber—similar to what happened in the Senate. Vaudeville.

Obviously, the international financial institutions and foreign countries would have to have second thoughts in extending assistance or loans to our nation, given the unfolding “James Bond 007 thriller” episodes that so clearly and shamefully tell how corrupt our government is.

Obviously, who will blame the South Korean president for stopping lately his country’s loan to the Philippines, supposedly intended to build bridges to ease the plight of our farmers and countrymen in the countryside?

But what is the loan for (indeed) when the Senate has just approved swiftly and without question the PHP 27.3 billion budget for the Office of the President despite the said budget being riddled or jammed with CONFI and pork barrels in different shapes, forms, and colors—out of the proposed PHP 6.793 trillion national budget for 2026, which is likely to be approved in like manner by Speedy Gonzales or co-conspirators.

Is the government borrowing millions and billions of pesos just to deposit them into the banks of the crooks and their cohorts and cronies?

Obviously, our people have become too hungry for justice and righteousness and are fed up with government corruption enough to vent their frustrations and fury by storming the mansions of crooks. Revolting.

Obviously, the president has metamorphosed into becoming a graft-buster, bearing and showing some seriousness in addressing government corruption. “Garapalan,” he bemoaned. Fantastic. But why can’t he be serious about himself and those around him in Malacañang with regard to their unexplainably, unbelievably, cunningly bloated budget? Irony.

Obviously, the lady vice president would so love to jump into the controversy to sketch/pose herself better, thinking perhaps that the Filipino people would soon forget the other Sara, who herself has her own cases and allegations of excesses and stealing to face in the impeachment court. Opportunism.

Obviously, God is involved in all of these fracas in answer and response to the cries and prayers of the poor, the suffering, and victims among us. Grace.

Obviously, the Lord is a God of transformation who can turn ugly things into becoming beautiful. Behold, instead of the money going into the pockets of animals, some dubious allocated budgets will now go to our children, grandchildren, and their future because BBM has decided to divert the said budget to building more classrooms for the truly intelligent but poor Filipinos nationwide—the future worthy, great leaders of the land. Romans 8:28. Hallelujah.

Finally, crooks have so much to hide. Hence, don’t wait for them to sign a waiver, for such will never happen. Force open their bank accounts, and we will all see big Pandora boxes full of rats, skeletons, gold, and dung. Horrendous.

What law can be greater than that which is being impelled and whipped up in the inner recesses of a human heart?

Taliwas sa kaalaman ng nakararami, ang makatarungang galit ay mainam o dakila nang walang paghahalintulad sa “kapanatagang” sanhi ng kasakiman, kabobohan, at kahangalan.

Contrary to common knowledge, righteous indignation is incomparably above and better than sober, “peaceful,” foolish, selfish subservience to abusive, oppressive, avaricious, deranged authorities, and sanctioned evils.

“Be angry, but sin not…” – Ephesians 4:26

Email: renivalenzuelaletters@yahoo.com