MY column last week was on Jesus Crispin Remulla declaring war on the Dutertes. It was not a figurative skirmish, but a categorical public pronouncement aimed squarely at Deegong’s administration. In no uncertain terms, Remulla announced that his immediate priority — upon the ink drying on his oath — would be the Pharmally corruption scandal, the multibillion-peso anomaly that remains the most egregious smear on the Duterte administration’s pandemic legacy.

“We’ll look into that because it seems like it has been forgotten, buried in oblivion. However, these cases should not be forgotten, as the allegations carry weight,” he said.

This, of course, is the sound of the political guillotine being sharpened. It is the very specter that haunted Imee Marcos and Paolo Duterte as they mounted a last-ditch, yet ultimately futile, effort to derail Remulla’s appointment to the position. Now, the swords are unsheathed, the battle lines drawn and the political blood is expected to flow freely.

The inevitable howls of “Unfair!” and “Politically motivated acts!” already echo through the halls of power. To which I, and many of my weary colleagues, can only offer one response: So what the hell! Go for it!

Good or bad, politically convenient or sincerely righteous, this strategic focus bodes well for the citizenry, but only if Remulla is prepared to follow through on the second, and arguably more critical, half of his initial pledge.

The imperative of the floods

While the Pharmally probe carries the heavy symbolic weight of the previous regime’s alleged sins, the public’s most acute rage is currently fixed elsewhere. Remulla has acknowledged this urgency: “The first thing I’ll attend to... is what happened at the DPWH (Department of Public Works and Highways). We have to focus on that, build up the cases, and make sure that well-prepared cases are filed before the Sandiganbayan and the RTCs (regional trial courts).”

This is the investigative thread that we, the angry people, demand be pulled first. Pursue the evidence wherever it leads, culminating in the filing of cases against the perpetrators of the scandalous flood control anomalies. Remulla must now follow through where the legislative hearings — both Senate and House — collapsed under the sheer weight of their members’ own hypocrisy.

It was a classic case of the pot calling the kettle black, with congressmen wanting senators’ names to surface, and senators demanding the unmasking of congressional culprits. A complete, cynical political stalemate where the devil takes the hindmost.

The dramatis personae of corruption

The Ombudsman’s path to credibility must now pass through the bureaucratic dens of the DPWH. Remulla must wield the “Juez de Cuchillo” proverbially cutting the heads of the public servants alleged to be part of this deeply entrenched web of corruption.

The list of names is long, constituting a rogue’s gallery of alleged bureaucratic malfeasance: the DPWH-BGC (Bulacan Group of Contractors) Boys (Henry Alcantara, Brice Hernandez, Jaypee Mendoza), former Public Works secretary Manuel Bonoan and the cadre of undersecretaries — Bobby Bernardo, Cathy Cabral and Emil Sadain.

But the probe cannot stop at the mid-level. It must ascend to the seeming “untouchables” in the highest echelons of government: Senators Jinggoy Estrada, Francis Escudero and Joel Villanueva, and their counterparts in the lower house (at least 17 names were mentioned) headed by Rep. Zaldy Co, and most pointedly, the name specifically mentioned by Escudero — former House speaker Martin Romualdez.

These officials fall squarely within the Ombudsman’s mandate. Under the 1987 Constitution (Art. XI, Sec. 13) and Republic Act 6770, or the Ombudsman Act of 1989, this office is empowered to investigate any act or omission of a public official that appears “unjust, improper or inefficient.”

Equally critical is the investigation of private entities — the contractors — who demonstrably conspire with public officials in graft, bribery or fraudulent transactions involving state funds. President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. in his State of the Nation Address, brought into the national conversation the Discayas and the other dozen or so contractors.

And let us dispense with the fantasy of a “witness protection program” for these contractors. The Rodante Marcoleta obsession with leniency is misplaced. If ever they are to receive consideration, it must be preceded by the surrender of their stolen loot — all of it, down to the umbrella stashed in the Rolls-Royce. Ex-senator Bong Revilla, now safely ensconced as a private individual in Cavite, should not escape the purview of this expanded investigation into past corruption networks.

Pharmally and the unfinished business

Only when the flood control cases are filed, with the genuine threat of incarceration looming over powerful shoulders, should the Ombudsman pivot fully to the Pharmally and the Duterte Covid-19 web of anomalies. Former senator Dick Gordon went through political hell and endured the Deegong’s wrath to expose this syndicate. True, the smaller fish were caught, but the leviathans slipped away.

Gordon’s monthslong Blue Ribbon Committee investigation ended with a mere nine signatories — two shy of the 11 needed to elevate the report to the plenary, effectively preventing the case’s momentum and protecting the suspected masterminds.

We must refresh our collective memory of those who declined to sign the findings, shielding in the process the former president’s associates, particularly his notorious political consultant, Michael Yang. Several complicit senators are still sitting: Pia Cayetano, Sherwin Gatchalian, Lito Lapid, Imee Marcos, Juan Miguel Zubiri (who reportedly sought the omission of PRRD’s name) and the Deegong’s surrogate son, Bong Go. The headlines at the time screamed, “Filipinos lose as the Pharmally report fails to get the Senate’s nod.”

The preceding Ombudsman’s tenure only reached so far, charging seven key Procurement Service-Department of Budget and Management officials (the “Davao Boys,” including ex-undersecretary Lloyd Lao and director Warren Liong), one former Cabinet secretary (Duque) and seven Pharmally executives. This narrow focus ensured the masterminds remained untouched while trials commenced for the P4.16-billion supply contracts. This time around, Remulla must champion the people’s side and go beyond the “small fish.”

The people’s reckoning

The cynical view — that Remulla’s Pharmally initiative is merely a political stratagem, a redirection of public fury from the current administration’s flood control mess toward the Dutertes — may indeed possess a kernel of truth. The strategy would be to reframe the current political squabble as a dynasty konfrontasi ahead of 2028.

But this political calculus is profoundly shortsighted and dangerously underestimates the current zeitgeist. The people’s rage has surpassed the petty framing of partisan wars. It is at a boiling point over the very principle of impunity. The collective fury is so pervasive and organized that there may not even be a 2028 to speak of.

This is no longer a vicarious thrill derived from reading my columns or watching events go by — the trillion street marches, the “moro-moro” teleserye Senate/House hearings on TV and YouTube. It is a reckoning. The anger is real, and it is organized. We will not be lulled into silence by token gestures or hollow reforms. We are watching. We are mobilizing. And when the moment demands it, we will storm the ramparts — not in chaos, but with clarity, conviction and the unyielding belief that justice must be claimed, not begged for. The time for passive hope has passed. The people are ready. The people will act. And history will remember that they did.