THE decisiveness of the upper chamber which resulted in the ouster of former Senate President Francis Escudero should be more than enough reason for the members of the House of Representatives to contemplate.
This comes as netizens expressed belief that embedded corruption in the government is not as invincible as many thought it is.
Citing reports, netizens particularly hinted at Escudero’s involvement in budget insertions, receiving campaign donations from a contractor, flood control brouhaha and the dilly-dallying over the impeachment complaint filed against Vice President Sara Duterte.
To some, Escudero deserves expulsion from the third most powerful elective post.
EXPLOSIVE EXPOSÉ
Aside from Escudero, likewise extinguished in what looks more like a “lightning coup” is blue ribbon committee chair Rodante Marcoleta, who steered the “investigation in aid of legislation” into the massive corruption behind a little less than a thousand flood control projects across the archipelago.
According to an angry mob on social media, the blue ribbon committee hearings are no more than a mock (zarzuela) probe “primarily designed to humiliate the administration.”
Since the blue ribbon committee commenced the congressional hearings over the flood control scandal, prominent names were tagged by couple Curlee and Sarah Discaya, whom they accused of demanding kickbacks from contractors.
On their list are 17 members of the House of Representatives and eight officials — including two undersecretaries, from the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH).
DAMAGE CONTROL
Moments after the explosive exposé, the lightning coup caught the blue ribbon committee members by surprise.
Hence, Escudero was ousted by 15 senators — including those who helped him trounce his predecessor.
With a new senate president at the helm, other senate guards were replaced, including Senator Jinggoy Estrada who was forced to relinquish his post. Senator Panfilo Lacson was later on named as the new senate president pro-tempore.
So as Senator Joel Villanueva who was booted out as senate majority floor leader, in favor of Sen. Juan Miguel Zubiri.
According to insiders, the move was perpetrated by House Speaker Martin Romualdez in an apparent effort to put the fire “under control.”
OUST ROMUALDEZ
Amid a change in Senate leadership, netizens somehow felt relieved and hopeful that the congressional probe into the massive corruption in government infrastructure projects would yield results with an anti-pork barrel senator calling shots for the blue ribbon committee.
The netizens however wanted a parallel move at the House of Representatives, which is conducting its own investigation over anomalies involving peers at the lower legislative chamber.
The clamor — oust Romualdez and other congressmen on Discaya’s list of “beneficiaries,” if only to ensure an honest-to-goodness internal cleansing of an institution that has long been synonymous to corruption.
BEYOND INFRA
For one, corruption isn’t limited within the ambit of the DPWH, for which the President should seriously consider the idea of heeding to the public clamor — walk his talk by issuing an executive order forming an independent commission that would look into all types of graft and corruption under the executive branch of government
Interestingly, part of the call is to check on other oversight agencies like the Commission on Audit even as the netizens expressed belief that the scandal is not just confined to favored contractors, but goes as deep as the executive branch, specifically palace insiders, citing the long history of such anomalies in previous administrations.
More than investigations, the public are pinning their hopes that the move would yield results — filing appropriate changes in the court of law, ensuring conviction and recovering what has been lost to systemic corruption.