The Market Monitor Minding the Nation's Business
By Tracy Cabrera
MALACAÑAN, Manila — Filipinos are hoping for a better year this upcoming 2026 and at the same time they are expecting more personalities linked to the flood control scandal to be “thrown behind bars” while counting President Ferdinand ‘Bongbong’ Marcos Jr. (PBBM)’s efforts to hold to account all individuals involved in corruption-tainted infrastructure projects.
According to presidential communications acting secretary Dave Gomez, the president is keen on continuing to go after those officials involved not only in project irregularities in the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) but in all other agencies.
Gomez clarified that the detention of contractors Pacifico ‘Curlee’ Discaya and wife Cezarah Rowena ‘Sarah’ Discaya over the Christmas period is just the start of a broader accountability drive that aims to rid the government of corrupt officials and employees.
“The flood control investigation d(id) not end on December 25. It’s only been a little over four months. The Napoles probe took almost a year before people were sent to jail. There will surely be more thrown behind bars in the New Year,” he noted.
He added that Janet Lim-Na poles, who was accused of running a pork barrel scam for at least a decade by using a network of bogus non-government organizations to siphon off about ₱10 billion in lawmakers’ Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) and ghost projects, will eventually be convicted of plunder.
“(But) the scale of the Discayas’ ill-gotten wealth far exceeds previous cases. Some quarters are calling the Discaya couple as the new Napoles, but their unexplained wealth is ten times over. Both spent Christmas in detention,” he also cited.
While the Discaya couple and several DPWH officials have already been detained and are awaiting trial, the public continues to query in wonderment why more prominent personalities—like former House Speaker Ferdinand Martin Romualdez and former House appropriations committee chairman Elizaldy ‘Zaldy’ Co — have yet to be placed behind bars despite allegations of their involvement in anomalies in huge government projects.