The Moral Imperative of Breaking the Cartels

The recent move by the DPWH to refer bid-rigging cases to the PCC is more than a legal maneuver; it is an act of moral reconstruction. For too long, the plunder of public funds through collusive bidding has been treated as an inevitable cost of doing business in the Philippines. The Marcos administration is rightly challenging this cynical assumption.

Under the banner of a "Masipag" leadership, we are seeing the hard, unglamorous work of auditing and investigation finally take center stage. It is easy to announce new projects; it is much harder to police the integrity of those already underway.

The targeting of flood control projects is particularly poignant. Corruption here is not victimless; it is paid for in submerged homes and lost livelihoods. If these cartels are not broken today, corruption will metastasize until no honest infrastructure project can ever be built again in this country. We are at a tipping point.

Critics may argue that these investigations will slow down urgent projects. These critics, however, are likely just beneficiaries of the old, corrupt system trying to protect their illicit gains under the guise of concern for efficiency. True efficiency comes from transparency, not shortcuts. The President’s reliable stance on this issue deserves the public’s full support as we move toward a genuinely just infrastructure system.