Category: Privilege Speeches

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Flooded Gates of Corruption: Privilege Speech on Flood Control Projects

Mr. President, my distinguished colleagues, I rise on a matter of personal and collective privilege — to uncover schemes surrounding a systemic problem in our country – one that submerges our nation not just in flood waters, but in depths of corruption.

In the course of our research and investigation, we encountered several words – their meanings, we could not find in the dictionary. So we looked somewhere else. Alas! We found them – in the ‘corruptionary’.

We have a saying: A leaky roof today is a ruined home tomorrow.

Fortunately, President Bongbong Marcos himself has taken decisive steps to plug the leaky roof as a determined follow-through on his striking rebuke and appeal to conscience with his resounding admonition: “Mahiya naman kayo!”.

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Privilege Speech on the National Vaccination Program

Mr. President, distinguished colleagues, I rise before you on a matter of collective and personal privilege.

Looking back to last week’s Committee of the Whole 2-day hearings, I couldn’t help but think that we’ve been had. Instead of having the information needed to aid us in our legislative work mainly because some people in the panel of our resource persons who are in charge of the vaccine program were not forthright and honest in their responses to the questions raised by the members of this august chamber.

Nevertheless, we find comfort from the wise words of Winston Churchill, who said and I quote: “Truth is incontrovertible, malice may attack it and ignorance may deride it, but, in the end, there it is.”

At the center of the firestorm that had almost consumed the two-day long hearings and had consumed us the most was the Sinovac vaccine for a number of reasons.

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PhilWealth and Department of Wealth

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Mr. President, I stand before you on a matter of personal and collective privilege.

During his fourth State of the Nation Address (SONA), we heard President Rodrigo Roa Duterte loud and clear:

“You are free to investigate. I don’t take offense. If there is anything wrong in my department, the executive, you are free to investigate. Feel free to expose anything….”

In all of my years as a public servant and as a member of this revered institution, I have been unflinching in my fight against corruption and wrongdoings, blowing the lid off anomalous activities in the government – from the money-laundering scheme by one Jose Pidal; the diversion of P728 million in fertilizer funds engineered by one Jocjoc Bolante; Comelec Commissioner Virgilo Garcillano’s “Hello, Garci” tapes; the botched $329-million contract between the Philippine government and China’s ZTE for a national broadband network project; the “chopper scam” where secondhand helicopters were sold as brand-new to the Philippine National Police; the “Tara List” or Payola in the Bureau of Customs; and the cholesterol-rich pork barrel, to name a few.

Related:
At a Glance: PhilHealth and Department of Wealth
A Closer Look: Doctors Pharmaceuticals, Inc.
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“What a Mess: A Dumping Ground of Garbage and Drugs”

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We spend a great deal of taxpayers’ money for an automated processing system, x-ray scanners, even for brokers’ accreditation, not to mention fairly high salaries for seasoned military men at the helm of the Bureau of Customs. But at the end of the day – all our efforts be damned — we are still one hell of a mess.

Mr. President, distinguished colleagues, I rise before you on a matter of personal and collective privilege.

To say that our country is treated like trash appears to be true, as in literally, amid news reports of tons of waste being illegally shipped into our lands, no thanks to local and foreign smugglers, unscrupulous Customs brokers and corrupt Customs officials.

Related:
At a Glance: A Dumping Ground of Garbage and Drugs
“KITA KITA” (sa Customs): Paglahad sa Payola sa Bureau of Customs
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Privilege Speech: Living Without Pork (Part II)

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Mr. President, I rise before you on a matter of personal and collective privilege.

“To See No Evil, Hear No Evil, Speak No Evil.”

Mr. President, put literally, this proverbial adage serves as an age-old directive for dealing with impropriety — by looking the other way, refusing to hear and speak out, and feigning ignorance when something wrong is unfolding.

Related:
Living Without Pork (2003 privilege speech)
List: Institutional Amendments Proposed by Sen. Lacson in the 2019 Budget
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