The probe and the complaint can both be right

The National Bureau of Investigation’s (NBI) revived Southeast Asian (SEA) Games investigation deserves to proceed. And Alan Peter Cayetano’s complaint about it deserves a straight answer. Both. At the same time.

Start with the questions, because they are real. NBI Director Melvin Matibag says the bureau received information that around PHP 10 billion connected to the New Clark City sports complex was never liquidated, that no bidding took place, and that the money moved quickly through a congressional insertion in the General Appropriations Act. That is an allegation, not an audit finding. But seven years after the 2019 Games, nobody has produced a public accounting that settles it. The Office of the Ombudsman opened an inquiry in December 2019. Congress made noises in 2020. Then, quiet. A PHP 10-billion question does not expire because the cauldron photos got old.

Now the timing. Matibag announced the probe on July 14 – and he takes the witness stand at the impeachment trial days later, as a prosecution witness. Cayetano’s minority bloc has already lost three members to arrests and an International Criminal Court warrant, in a trial where conviction requires 16 votes no matter how many judges show up. You do not need to buy the “minions” rhetoric to see why announcing a probe into the minority leader that same week looks bad. Cayetano himself put it plainly: investigate anything you want, he said, but don’t announce it, because the announcement damages the integrity of the court. On that narrow point, he is right.

The Palace answer – “a person who has nothing to be afraid of will never be intimidated” – is a slogan, not an argument. Institutions are supposed to avoid even the appearance of leverage over judges. Ours keep failing that test, then acting surprised when verdicts lose legitimacy.

But Cayetano’s side has a test to pass too. “Nothing to hide” is a documents claim, and documents settle it, not press conferences, and certainly not bargaining, as he did last week, offering to support the probe only if the minority gets its own flood control investigation. Accountability is not a hostage exchange.

So judge this probe by its paper and its pace. The NBI says it will coordinate with the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Commission on Audit and the Bases Conversion and Development Authority. Good. Publish the scope; commit to a timeline. Let the Philippine Southeast Asian Games Organizing Committee, or PHISGOC, release its liquidation records without waiting for a subpoena. It is worth noting that the Ombudsman already junked SEA Games complaints against Vince Dizon for lack of evidence, which cuts both ways: probes can clear people, if they finish.

An investigation that moves briskly, on documents, in coordination with auditors, will look like law enforcement. One that drips out in ambush interviews timed to trial dates will look like exactly what Cayetano says it is. The NBI gets to choose which. So far, it has chosen poorly, and the questions are too important, and too old, for that.