Ang tama ay IPAGLABAN. Ang mali ay LABANAN.
Mr. President, esteemed colleagues:
“Where there’s a will, there’s a way”. This 400-year-old proverb applies to everyone, bar none.
Since getting the required majority signatures for this representation to be able to report out on the floor, your BRC’s Partial Committee Report on the flood control saga seems doomed from the time we first routed the same last February 11, 2026, I am compelled to stand before you on a matter of personal and collective privilege, and for good reasons.
Mr. President, distinguished colleagues, I rise today on a matter of personal and collective privilege.
As chairman of the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee, I have been subject of criticisms for not scheduling the 18 ex-military personnel who faced the media in an organized press conference at the historic Club Filipino on the eve of the 40th (anniversary of the) EDSA People Power Revolution to be called and testify before your Committee on Accountability of Public Officers and Investigations.
The Chief of Staff, Armed Forces of the Philippines, General Romeo S. Brawner Jr.; the Chief of the Philippine National Police, Police General Jose Melencio Nartatez; the Superintendent of the Philippine Military Academy, Vice Admiral Caesar Bernard Valencia; *PCG Commandant Admiral Ronnie Gil Gavan, Baguio Mayor Benjie Magalong, Major Service Commanders*, my fellow Cavaliers and alumni of our most revered institution, the Philippine Military Academy, members of the host classes for this year, the Cadet Corps, Armed Forces of the Philippines, and all the cadet girls present, especially my beautiful wife Alice, who is also here; Chairman of PMAAAI Admiral Ramon Punzalan and other officers of PMAAAI subsidiaries, the organizers of the Alumni Homecoming 2026, *Medal of Valor awardees*, ~and the host classes~; and pardon my arrogance, the best and snappiest class, at least for today, good morning to all.
It is an honor to stand behind this podium once more with great pride in this memory-filled Borromeo Field as a Cavalier among Cavaliers, as I did when I was also your Guest of Honor and Speaker exactly 12 years ago. I can still remember when I applied for admission into the Academy in mid-1966.
Sir, when we both ran for the Senate in the May 2001 midterm elections, you as a veteran legislator and I as a neophyte politician, (you) mentored me on the art of campaigning. Unfortunately, the mentor lost, and ironically, the mentored won.
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!”.
Continue reading “Flooded Gates of Corruption: Privilege Speech on Flood Control Projects”