A Pilgrimage to Cinema

The issue of the anomalous mega-budget flood control projects undertaken by the government is becoming more complicated and more interesting by the day. The plot thickens, as I posited in my previous piece. However, will this lead to anywhere at all? That is to say, will some big names be held accountable and eventually tried and punished for the plunder that they made to the national coffers? Will this mark the beginning, once and for all, of a new era of a corrupt-free nation? Let us take a look at some recent developments, whether directly or indirectly related to the issue at hand. President Ferdinand Marcos, Jr., in an attempt to show that he is a hands-on leader, recently visited a flood control project site in the province of Bulacan, a project that cost about 55-million pesos (imagine, such a huge amount for a single site alone?). Unfortunately, nothing to be found on the site at all (this is in Barangay Piel, Baliuag), even if the project was supposed to have started last Febr...

Comedian Vice Ganda is being bashed left and right by netizens because of his allegedly insulting jokes about Former President Rodrigo Duterte and Senator Rodante Marcoleta. Has-been actress Liza Soberano has just revealed that she and former onscreen partner Enrique Gil have parted ways for quite some time already. Nadia Montenegro, a former staff of Senator Robin Padilla, is being suspected of smoking marijuana inside a Senate comfort room. Jaime Santiago has recently resigned from his position as National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) Director, for rather vague reasons. And then some. Don't you find it strange that these “issues” have successively come up in the midst of a more important and more urgent issue that is currently besetting our nation: the massive failure of the billions-of-peso government-sponsored flood control projects and the culture of corruption associated with it? If we are not vigilant and critical enough, we could easily be “distracted” by these non-flood i...

What now? President Ferdinand Marcos, Jr. delivered his fourth State of the Nation Address (SONA) last July 28, which also marked the formal opening of the 20th Congress (both the Senate and the House). This SONA is particularly interesting because, aside from this being at the halfway mark of Marcos' presidential term, it came at the tail-end of a week-long barrage of typhoons (Crising, Dante and Emong) and southwest monsoon ( habagat ) that caused massive flooding in Metro Manila and nearby provinces.  The devastating effects of the natural calamity put into spotlight the current government's ineptitude, inefficiency and corruption. The billions-of-peso flood control projects that Marcos boasted in last year’s SONA proved to be one epic failure. More likely than not, he really had no idea what he was talking about. There was no denying that the funds flowed not into some concrete, viable and long-term solutions, but into the pockets of all the persons concerned (government of...