Show Us the Receipts

The Iloilo City Council’s unanimous resolution to probe “daylight robberies” in flood control projects is a commendable, if overdue, act of local initiative. It signals that at least one governing body is willing to attach its name to the public’s growing unease. However, this local cry for transparency only highlights a troubling vacuum of accountability at the national level.

Councilor Rex Marcus Sarabia rightly points out the glaring omissions. The Senate Blue Ribbon Committee, tasked with a national inquiry into these very anomalies, is reportedly concluding its investigation “without even reaching Iloilo City.”

This vacuum is not just in the Senate. At the district level, Sarabia’s criticism of the “People’s Meeting” for its “general statements and conjecture” points to a similar gap. When the core public question – “does Iloilo City really have no ghost infrastructure project?” – is left unanswered, it’s difficult to move forward. Accountability is strengthened by direct answers to such pressing concerns.

But the council’s resolution, while politically potent, is legally powerless. As Sarabia himself admits, the council cannot subpoena or prosecute. This is where the hard, unglamorous work must begin. This is the solution.

The public, fueled by sensational allegations, is understandably impatient. But as prosecutors from the Ombudsman and DOJ have warned, they have “not secured evidence to meet this standard. Not yet.” In the Philippine justice system, allegations are wind; evidence is currency. The quantum of proof required is “beyond reasonable doubt,” a standard that demands “moral certainty.” Rushing a case to appease public anger “can only lead to their dismissal.”

This highlights the true crisis: the dangerous, systemic gap between public expectation and legal reality. We are trapped in a cycle where political bodies, like the new Independent Commission on Infrastructure (ICI), risk “unfairly inflating public expectations” that convictions are imminent.

This disconnect is where corruption thrives. It allows the truth to become, as Sarabia warned, “at its most vulnerable.” When the public expects swift arrests and the legal system requires a slow, methodical case-build, the system fails. The guilty walk free on technicalities, the public grows cynical, and the cycle repeats.

The council’s resolution must be the start, not the end. The solution is not more resolutions or political inquiries. The solution is evidence. Civil society, whistleblowers, and insiders must now step up and help the Ombudsman build its case. Patient, diligent prosecution is the only way to convert these “daylight robberies” into convictions.