“IKULONG NA YAN!” — shouted in cadence marked the September 21, 2025 rallies carried out in NCR –Luneta/Rizal Park, Mendiola, and People Power Monument in Edsa, and in a number of schools. But such has not died down as Soc Med still carries the same ear-splitting cry, obviously meant to remind the Filipino people, and more directly and specifically, President Bongbong Marcos, the newly-installed Ombudsman Crispin Remulla and other law enforcement agencies, to investigate the anomalies found in the government’s flood-control and other infrastructure projects budgeted and supposedly carried out since 2016.
More pointedly, the “E – KULONG NA YAN” refers to the senators and congressmen, and others who got, or rather stole, millions or billions from the budgeted amounts for the government projects handled by the DPWH.
The rallyists’ loud stinging call serves as a strongdemand for President Bongbong Marcos and appropriate government authorities to investigate, convict, if found guilty of corruption, with a jail term or the appropriate penalty, senators Joel Villanueva, Jinggoy Estrada, Francis Escudero, Mark Villar, Bong Go, former senators Bong Revilla and Nancy Binay, congressmen Elizaldy Co, Martin Romualdez, former representative Mitch Cajayon-Uy, and others who alsomay be found really corrupt. In other words, the demand of the people to President Bongbong Marcos is to act forthwith, as a government official holding the highest position in the bureaucracy, and the most important position of public trust, in finding the truth and “Ikulong ang mga magnanakaw ng pera ng bayan!”
‘With his political governance background, President Marcos, Jr. may fail to jail one corrupt senator or congressman to jail, and get back the people’s stolen money. Still, hopefully, “Mga Politikong Magnanakaw, MAPANAGOT!”
INTEGRITY ISSUES
There might be a hitch, however: is President Bongbong Marcos really capable of doing the job of conducting an honest-to-goodness investigation? Will he call to account, particularly the suspected senators, congressmen, and other government officials, and apply the appropriate penalties in accordance with the Rule of Law?
Integrity issues keep hounding President Marcos, Jr. There have been many speculations, if not actual facts, about himself and his family which he, his mother and siblings have not admitted publicly. Namely, the brutal Martial Law record of his dictator-father, that is, of economic plunder, ill-gotten wealth, illegal arrests and detentions, tortures, rapes, massacres of more than 200,000 Filipinos, and other acts of oppression against the people.
Under the administration of his predecessor, currently ICC jailbird, Rodrigo Roa Duterte, who went on a killing spree (estimated to be more than 30,000 Filipinos) with his “War on Drugs, Operation Tokhang,” aggressively implemented by his aides, now senators Bato de la Rosa and Bong Go, his daughter VP Sara Duterte, and others, then Senator Ferdinand R. Marcos, Jr never said a word of objection, kept mumall the while, in effect, actively condoning Rodrigo’s bloody human rights violations.
SERIOUS QUESTIONS
More recently, with the national elections of May 9, 2022, when the tandem of Bongbong Marcos and Sara Duterte supposedly won as president and vice president, respectively, serious questions were raised about the possible rigging of the elections by Comelec under Chair George Erwin Garcia, with the use of Smartmatic, the automation technology applied for the counting of votes.
This has been the serious claim by IT expert trio,former DICT secretary retired General Eli Rio, Jr, former Comelec Chair Gus Lagman and former FINEX president Franklin Ysaac. Other professional IT organizations and an IT expert/IT auditor/lawyer Vice-Mayor Harold Respicio (of a Nueva Vizcaya town) had the same conclusion after much review and study, about how Comelec managed the May 9, 2022 national elections.
With his political governance background, President Marcos, Jr. may fail to jail one corrupt senator or congressman to jail, and get back the people’s stolen money.
Still, hopefully, “Mga Politikong Magnanakaw, MAPANAGOT!”