LAST week, I covered Sen. Panfilo “Ping” Lacson’s exposé on how human actions turn floods into disasters. Today’s column focuses on the dramatis personae — legislators, Cabinet members, government officials and local authorities involved in corruption — who exploit the national budget.

We have seen this before. We have seen it too many times. The ghost of pork barrel politics haunts our national budget like an unwanted revenant — Lazarus resurrected. The Supreme Court’s 2013 ruling against the Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) after the Napoles scandal was heralded as a cleansing act, the dawn of transparent governance — kuno. And yet here we are, a decade later, wading through a swamp of “insertions” and “lump sums.” Pork is alive. Pork is fat. And pork is now dressed up as “flood control.” But this time, the ongoing corruption is intertwined with another, equally potent narrative of political intrigue and rivalry between the Marcos and Duterte camps vying for dominance in the 2028 elections and beyond.

The Senate coup

The recent upheaval in the Senate, a miniature version of this larger battle, depicts a seesaw war of attrition between these two forces. The aftermath of the earlier 2025 senatorial elections saw the Duterte bloc in the ascendancy, confidently squashing the VP Sara impeachment, orchestrated by Senate President Escudero and the not so subtle attempt to humiliate her bete noire, potential presidential rival, Speaker Martin Romualdez, through the Blue Ribbon Committee hearings.

However, the meticulously planned script unraveled in a stunning twist. This elegant takeover, executed with breathtaking speed, saw 10 senators defect from the supermajority bloc to form a new 15-member coalition. This swift maneuver restored Tito Sotto to the Senate presidency and stripped the pro-Duterte bloc of its key leadership positions, including Senator Marcoleta’s chairmanship of the Blue Ribbon Committee. What was anticipated to be a moment of achievement for the Duterte camp instead became a significant setback, highlighting the risks associated with political overconfidence.

The humiliation deepened as the House of Representatives, having absorbed the initial blow, delivered a devastating counterpunch. While the Duterte bloc-led Blue Ribbon’s witnesses offered only empty allegations, aided by the incongruous interpellation of Sen. Jinggoy Estrada who himself has been incriminated by corruption in the past, the House brought forward the DPWH mafiosi — the “BGC Boys” who provided tangible evidence — photographs, text messages and direct testimony — against Senators Jinggoy himself and Joel Villanueva. This move turned the tables, placing these senators in a far more precarious legal and political position.

The Discayas and the media

At the center of this storm are the Discayas, suddenly elevated to the limelight by a compliant press. Only months ago, Sarah Discaya was profiled as a “smart city visionary,” a fresh face of entrepreneurship, philanthropy and public service. How expedient. How polished. How utterly false. Legislative hearings stripped away the veneer, revealing a British Filipino owner-wife whose nine construction firms anomalously bid against each other for nearly 500 DPWH projects and won 71. Substandard dikes in Bulacan and Iloilo, already crumbling, were traced back to their companies.

Equally damning is the role of the media in laundering this corruption through glossy profiles. This is the betrayal behind the betrayal. When the Babaos and Korinas trade their watchdog teeth for lapdog flattery, the public is not just misinformed, it is disarmed. And when the flood comes, it is not the Discayas who drown. It is the ordinary Filipino who trusted the headlines.

The enablers: The BGC Boys

The web of corruption extends deeper, with the “BGC Boys” (Bulacan Group of Contractors) as key facilitators for these contractors. They stand accused of pocketing billions and laundering funds via casino transactions. The scandal centers on a staggering P28.9 billion worth of flood control projects, some discovered to be “ghost projects.” The magnitude of the irregularities points to a systemic perversion of public funds, a cancer within the bureaucracy.

Whistleblowers now claim officials use “dummy” companies as fronts to corner contracts. And then there is Zaldy Co, erstwhile congressional appropriations committee chair, House Speaker Martin’s acolyte whose party-lists reportedly received P4 billion in projects, plus another P13 billion under his company, Sunwest, one of the 15 contractors mentioned by the President.

The circle of corruption is complete: the legislator writes the budget, the contractor receives the contract, the dummies build the flood walls, the engineers validate and launder the funds, the flood walls crumble, and the people suffer.

The Teflon-clad Villar

Yet, one figure remains untouched: Sen. Mark Villar. Netizens are grumbling why Villar sits in judgment as a senator, not as a defendant like his successor, Secretary Bonoan. Under President Duterte’s “Build, Build, Build,” and during Villar’s incumbency as Public Works secretary, a staggering 44,000 projects were awarded in just two years. Now, he escapes scrutiny, perhaps daunted by their powerful dynasty. Mark’s sister, Camille, now sits as senator, replacing mother Cynthia in the last election. Manny, the billionaire patriarch, used to be a Senate president and speaker of the lower house. Villar promoted the notorious Henry Alcantara as district engineer of Bulacan’s first engineering district. The Deegong once defended Villar by saying he was “too rich to be corrupt.” A truly pathetic defense.

In this grim landscape, a maverick figure emerges in the form of Sen. Ping Lacson, now the new Blue Ribbon Committee chairman. He warned that senators and congressmen may be complicit in these anomalous projects and has reiterated his call for complete transparency. Lacson, who in his past stint as a senator never partook of the “pork barrel,” is now being attacked by the Duterte camp and their social media trolls. He must be doing the right thing.

His hearings are expected to disclose irregularities, this time dating back to the Duterte administration, a stark contrast to Marcoleta’s that focused only on the Marcos era. During his questioning of the Discayas, the clueless senator-comedian Bato de la Rosa inadvertently revealed that the Discayas were among the largest contractors during President Duterte’s term.

Additionally, it was disclosed that a substantial budget of P51 billion was allocated to congressman Paolo Duterte of Davao during the first three years of his father’s presidency. Also, despite Sen. Bong Go’s denials in his privilege speech, his family’s firm CLTG Builders partnered with the Discayas on a P816-million project in Davao in 2017 — and perhaps more.

Lacson who does his homework promises to link more actors to this perversion. So far, he has linked the shameless Bonoan to the MBB Global Properties, contracting for the DPWH. MBB could stand for the daughter-owners of Candaba Mayor Maglangue, DPWH Undersecretary Bernardo and Bonoan. And another high-ranking DPWH undersecretary for planning, Catalina Cabral, may be on the chopping block.

More political corruption will soon be exposed. The key question is whether these revelations will lead to genuine accountability or will simply fade into another wasted reckoning — another moro-moro. The integrity of our institutions and the welfare of the Filipino people hang in the balance.

We need to be vigilant with our street marches and protests fueled by our anger and rage!