Will the Komodo dragons follow what the DPWH small frogs did?

 

“No matter how corrupt, greedy, and heartless our government, our corporations, our media, and our religious & charitable institutions may become, the music will still be wonderful.”

―Kurt Vonnegut, A Man Without a Country

 

By Alex P. Vidal

 

ONLY the small frogs—at least two of them as of this writing—have returned the loot they funneled off as kickbacks from flood control projects.

The Komodo dragons—the congressmen and senators, including the DPWH heavy animals—haven’t turned over a single centavo yet.

We doubt if the mammoth beasts will follow what the two small frogs did.

If they can at least return one fourth of the total pillage, many Filipinos will be able to heave a sigh of temporary relief.

So far, the government was able to recoup P150 million from former DPWH engineer Henry Alcantara (he initially turned over P110 million in cash to the government in November 2025, as part of a larger commitment to return a total of P300 million from kickbacks in anomalous flood control projects, with more to follow in tranches while he's detained) and former DPWH National Capital Region (NCR) engineer Gerard Opulencia who formally turned over P40 million in cash to the Department of Justice (DOJ) on December 16).

 

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The amount partly fulfilled Opulencia’s commitment to give back a total of P150 million skimmed off funds meant for DPWH projects during his watch as NCR director.

The flood control project criminals have also committed embezzlement, or an act by our government officials of using their positions for their own benefit, such as diverting funds.

They also committed a financial fraud, and a form of corruption may have occurred when the small frogs and Komodo dragons entrusted with the taxpayers’ money or property stole it.

All the dirty tricks and fraudulent means were present when the flood control project criminals embezzled the taxpayers’ money in the DPWH projects.

Examples of embezzlement include falsifying financial records, creating fake invoices, or diverting money to personal accounts. It is considered a serious crime in many countries and jurisdictions and can result in criminal charges and severe penalties, including fines and imprisonment.

 

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It is only through the simple act of restitution like what the two DPWH small frogs did that the taxpayers are able to more or less recover something from the embezzlers.

It is actually a court-ordered payment from a convicted offender to a crime victim, aiming to restore the victim financially by covering losses like medical bills, lost wages, or damaged property, rather than punishing the offender.

It ensures victims are made whole for direct financial harm, existing as a civil judgment that can be collected through various means like wage garnishment or liens, even after the offender's release. Restitution also applies in contract law, aiming to return parties to their pre-contract positions when damages aren't enough.

 

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Q: Can we send an e-mail thank you (for the Christmas gifts), or do we have to use snail mail? A: An e-mailed thank you is simply not as warm and personal as a note. If we have a casual relationship with the gift giver and we regularly correspond via e-mail and Facebook, and electronic thank-you may be OK. But for most people, a written note is the best way to offer an expression of genuine thanks.

COMMON SENSE: Q: Should I send Christmas cards to non-Christian friends? A: It's more considerate to go with cards that offer the message "Season's Greetings" -- with no religious figures, messages, or symbols -- when we aren't sure of a friend's religious preference.

NOT GUILTY. That's the verdict on fertility drugs and the possibility that they increase woman's chances of developing ovarian cancer. Doctors had long worried that there might be such a link. But now Danish researchers have analyzed records of 54,362 women and found, over an average 16-yr follow up, that those who took fertility drugs faced no greater risk of cancer.

SEXSOMNIA is the term US scientists use for people who perform sexual activities unconsciously during sleep. The spectrum ranges from masturbation to sexual intercourse - in the event that that the sexsomnia patient comes across a partner. (Journal of Clinical Forensic Medicine).

 

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IF WE'RE LOW ON SILVER POLISH, LET'S USE TOOTHPASTE: Plain, non-gel toothpaste (without additives like whiteners) can rid small silver pieces of light tarnish without damaging the surface. Moisten the silver piece; apply a bit of toothpaste to our finger. Rub gentlyand rinse, then buff with a soft cloth. (Source: goodhousekeeping)

NO DISHWASHING LIQUID? Let's grab the laundry detergent. A teaspoonful of liquid laundry detergent in a basin of hot water will cut grease on dirty dishes equally well (though we may want to wear gloves, as detergent can be drying to hands).

HER NOSE AND HIS NOSE: Men may hope their cologne will mask underarm odor, but women aren't fooled, research from the Monell Chemical Senses Center in Philadelphia found. While 6 of 32 scents tested disguised the smell of male BO from other men, none of the fragrances worked for women. To the showers, guys! (And don't forget the deodorant.)

TO MY FELLOW GROCERY HABITUÉS: While reusable shopping bags are best, plastic bags are recyclable. Most large grocers and retailers now have recycling bins. The plastic is made into fences, decks, and new bags. (Source: Kathleen Huddy, GHRI textiles, paper & plastics director.)

(The author, who is now based in New York City, used to be the editor-in-chief of two leading daily newspapers in Iloilo, Philippines.—Ed)

 

Arrest Grace Poe, Chiz Escudero, et al, not mayors who went abroad

“Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he does not become a monster. And if you gaze long enough into an abyss, the abyss will gaze back into you.”

―Friedrich Nietzsche

 

By Alex P. Vidal

 

I SUPPORT the majority of the Filipinos against rascals and political lunatics who wanted but failed to topple the Marcos Jr. administration, but I disagree with the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) to prioritize the arrest of some local officials who left the Philippines while it was reeling from successive super typhoons.

The arrest, of course, will commence once a warrant for their arrest has been issued after the cases were filed before the Office of the Ombudsman.

We aren’t against it per se; but we join the millions of Filipinos not only in the Philippines but also in other parts of the globe stirred up by the demand for the Marcos Jr. administration to prioritize the arrest of flood control project criminals.

They include DPWH officials and contractors, as well as prominent politicians—members of the House of Representatives and the Senate—who stole billions of taxpayers’ money through “ghost” projects and kickbacks.

Grace Poe, Chiz Escudero, Manuel Bonoan, the Bersamin uncle and nephew, Joel Villanueva, Nancy Binay, Bong Revilla, Jinggoy Estrada, Martin Romualdez, Elizaldy Co, and more than three dozen others who have hogged the headlines these past months for infamy and skullduggery in relation to flood control project anomalies.

 

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Only a handful of observers will jump with glee if those fleeing local officials—mayors, governors, vice mayors, vice governors, board members, councilors—will be arrested and jailed soon.

What the majority of the Filipinos want to see and hear is the immediate arrest of Grace Poe, Chiz Escudero, the Bersamin uncle and nephew, et al.

This will satisfy the impatient and irate taxpayers; this will help redeem the image of the president tainted by the outlandish allegations of Zaldy Co.

File the cases now and let these corrupt lawmakers and their subalterns in the anomaly spend time in jail while their cases are being tried in the Sandiganbayan for plunder and violation of the anti-graft and corrupt practices act.

The problem is the Marcos Jr. administration is too slow to dispense the kind of justice the Filipinos have been hankering for since the president exposed the flood control project anomaly tumult in September during his State of the Nation Address (Sona).

We have the names of the DPWH officials and their hand-picked contractors; we have the names of those venal and predatory senators and congresspeople, yet all the people have heard so far was procrastination, condemnation, press conference, denunciation, but no solid or concrete action.

 

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DILG Secretary Jonvic Remulla can always whip those dromomaniac local chief executives who abandoned their constituents during the recent onslaught of storms, but he should set aside and let the Ombudsman dominate the discussions pertaining to the books being thrown against the flood control projects demons.

The DILG ordered November 8 all elected and appointed local officials to suspend their travels abroad from Nov. 9 to Nov. 15 to ensure their presence on the ground during the onslaught of Supertyphoon “Uwan” (international name: Fung-wong).

Around 24 officials will be charged, some from Cebu who flew to Europe just as Typhoon “Tino” (international name: Kalmaegi) devastated the province on Nov. 4, according DILG chief Remulla.

Remuhey face charges of abandonment of duty, gross neglect and insubordination.

Among the officials who were reported to have defied the travel ban and facing charges of abandonment of duty, gross neglect and insubordination were Isabela Gov. Rodolfo Albano III and eight Cebu local officials. They were Pilar Mayor Manuel Santiago, Poro Mayor Edgar Rama, Tudela Mayor Greman Solante, Cebu provincial council member Andrei Duterte, Liloan Mayor Aljew Jordan Frasco, San Francisco Mayor Alfredo Aquillano, Catmon Mayor Avis Ginoo-Monleon and Compostela Mayor Felijur Quiño.

(The author, who is now based in New York City, used to be the editor-in-chief of two leading daily newspapers in Iloilo, Philippines.—Ed)

 

 

 

Pinoys ready na for the guillotine?

“Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he does not become a monster. And if you gaze long enough into an abyss, the abyss will gaze back into you.”

―Friedrich Nietzsche

 

By Alex P. Vidal

 

WE are against the death penalty, and we can’t imagine watching government thieves, including Filipino political celebrities tainted by graft and corruption, being beheaded one by one if we have the death penalty—or if the government has fallen under the “Reign of Terror,” reminiscent of the French Revolution in 1789.

Even if we are very angry at the level of corruption allegedly committed by the likes of Zaldy Co, Martin Romualdez, Sara Duterte, Joel Villanueva, Bong Revilla, Chiz Escudero, Jinggoy Estrada, among other high and mighty political clan kings and queens linked to misuse of intelligence funds and flood control project anomalies, we reject any act of barbarism as a punitive measure.

Which probably explains why we can’t duplicate what happened recently in Indonesia and Nepal.

We still hold the record of owning the most peaceful revolution in history—the 1986 EDSA Revolution. There are rosaries and flowers, but no bloodbath when we drive away dictators, ruffians and plunderers.

 

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In Indonesia and Nepal, protesters against graft and corruption and abuse of power by government officials were willing to vandalize government facilities and infrastructures at all costs and execute rapacious and greedy public officials by hook or by crook.

Filipinos, the only Christian inhabitants in Asia, could hardly replicate it. Not even close to duplicating it.

On September 21, 2025, a small number of Pinoy “protesters” wanted to do what the Indonesians and Nepalese did to their governments but failed miserably because they weren’t legitimate rallyists agitating for genuine reforms and social justice.

They were bandits, gangsters and paid troublemakers who couldn’t even understand what they were fighting for, and why they needed to turn violent while marching toward the parameters of Malacanang.

Criminals can’t be reformers or dispensers of social justice.

When it comes to mob, we are good at assembling it in the guise of expressing or to seek redress for our legitimate grievances against massive graft and corruption and plunder, but as to the real objectives and mission, we aren’t united.

Going back to the guillotine. Many Filipinos continue to advocate for death penalty while a broad segment of the population spurns it mainly because of religious and cultural considerations.

 

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Now that graft and corruption has turned deadly, or is now in the level where the Philippines will almost collapse economically, many Filipinos have now openly expressed their pent-up outrage not only in the social media, but also in the streets—and we’re referring to legitimate protest actions being initiated by the multi-sectoral segments of society that continue to grow.

For a lot of people, a mention of the French Revolution conjures up images of wealthy nobles being led to the guillotine.

Many have been left with the impression the revolution was chiefly about chopping off the heads of kings, queens, dukes and other cashed-up aristocrats, thanks to countless movies, books and half-remembered history lessons, according to The Conversation.

The Bastille Day and what is known in French as Quatorze Juillet–a date commemorating events of July 14 in 1789 that came to symbolize the French Revolution—it’s worth correcting this common misconception.

In fact, most people executed during the French Revolution–and particularly in its perceived bloodiest era, the nine-month “Reign of Terror” between autumn 1793 and summer 1794–were commoners.

Among those who died under the “national razor” (the guillotine’s nickname) were King Louis XVI and Queen Marie Antoinette, many revolutionary leaders such as Georges Danton, Louis de Saint-Just and Maximilien Robespierre. Scientist Antoine Lavoisier, pre-romantic poet Andre Chenier, feminist Olympe de Gouges and legendary lovers Camille and Lucie Desmoulins were among its victims.

But it wasn’t just “celebrities” executed at the guillotine.

 

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If we have the guillotine in the Philippines and the death penalty, those expected to be executed are politicians who have repeatedly stolen the taxpayers’ money by hundreds of millions and even billions.

There are the so-called “repeat offenders” who had spent years in jail for plunder and yet were able to wiggle out from their crimes against the taxpayers because of political affiliations and manipulations.  

Politicians who enriched themselves while the people suffer from neglect, betrayal, and death like in the flood control project scandal. Those who collected mansions in the Philippines and abroad, bought imported vehicles worth hundreds of millions of pesos, private planes and yachts, among other pieces of evidence of opulence and mindless show of grandiosity.

(The author, who is now based in New York City, used to be the editor of two leading daily newspapers in Iloilo.—Editor)

 

No dead bodies yet? Of course

“When all is said and done, our lives are like houses built on foundations of sand. One strong wind and all is gone.”

—Hanshiro Tsugumo

 

By Alex P. Vidal

 

JUSTICE is slow if not elusive in the Philippines. 

The moneyed sometimes escaped accountability—but not guilt—like Houdini escaping handcuffs, straitjackets, and other restraints in daring public stunts. Arcanum effugium.

If the monolithic flood control project anomalies occurred in Japan, dead bodies of politicians and even government-funded project contractors would have strewn in the rivers, sidewalks, and railroads.

No, the taxpayers wouldn’t commit the murderous binge yet; it’s the politicians and contractors themselves who would violently end their lives via harakiri, a historical form of ritual suicide. 

The shame and humiliation after being exposed as plunderers and thieves in government are unbearable and unacceptable. Japanese would prefer to “die with dignity.”

The phrase "death with dignity" is understood as the right to end one's life with minimal suffering and to have one's wishes for end-of-life care respected, which can involve withdrawing life-sustaining treatment, particularly in terminal cases among Japanese.

 

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This concept is evolving from traditional cultural views emphasizing harmony and a peaceful transition, to a modern emphasis on individual autonomy and patient rights, influenced by Western concepts of individualism and the right to refuse treatment.

We don’t have it in the Philippines. Filipino thieves in government will even deny to death—and they are the ones who have the temerity to get mad and act as the victims.

Rapacious politicians don’t feel any iota of shame and embarrassment even if they are regularly bombarded with negative and slanderous commentaries in the social and mainstream media.

In Hiligaynon, it is called kabalan or mga kabalan (thick-faced or thick-skinned), which describes someone insensitive to criticism or insults, unbothered by embarrassment, and not easily offended.

Look at this kabalan Joel Villanueva. He even threatened to sue his accusers and the netizens who criticized him after a DPWH contractor revealed his possible involvement in the P600-million worth of questionable infrastructure projects in Bulacan, where his family members are being hailed as demigods.

If the flood control project anomalies happened in China, dead bodies would be strewn in the Tiananmen Square in Dongcheng, China where corrupt individuals—politicians and private individuals—are paraded for all the people to watch and mowed down by firing squad. 

 

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In the Philippines, the rascals are able to fly abroad for medical check-up, among other absurd alibis; they are able to create fake media accounts to belie accusations against them even if the accusations are backed by damning pieces of evidence.

They can call a press conference and even bribe some equally corrupt reporters to slant their stories in favor of these hooligans in public service.

They can finance a band of gangsters to participate and disrupt a peaceful protest rally to divert the people’s attention from their shenanigans.

Or they will just give up their positions like Martin Romualdez, the “bondying” (this isn’t our word) of Philippine congress. 

If bondying and his ilk Zaldy Co, et al won’t be jailed, the bondying’s cousin, President Bonget, will most like incur the wrath of irate Filipinos.

Heads must roll. It’s not enough to condemn the gigantic thievery that could reach staggering trillions of pesos if proper accounting of taxpayers' money stolen by the crocodiles in government has been completed.

Also, it doesn't mean the alleged malfeasance of the second highest elected official of the land, Sara Duterte, will be forgotten because the people are now laser-focused on the flood control project anomalies. 

All crooks must be exposed and sent to jail. There should be no exemption. There should be no holy cows.

(The author, who is now based in New York City, used to be the editor of two leading daily newspapers in Iloilo.—Editor)