00:00In other news, a civics group against crime and corruption formed during the Duterte administration and an ex-magistrate of the High Court have joined the chorus urging government to fix the flood control measure mess for good.
00:13The latter has recommended offering contractors and a dismissed DPWH engineer's admission into the WPP in exchange for pinpointing the brains behind the scam, as our Denise Osorio reports.
00:25Retired Justice Alfredo Ampuan has spoken out, adding his voice to the growing chorus over alleged irregularities in the government's flood control projects.
00:38For Ampuan, the principle is stark. Public office is a public trust, and those in government must answer directly to the people.
00:47Public officials and employees must at all times be accountable to the people.
00:55Serve the people with utmost responsibility, serve the people with utmost integrity, serve the people with utmost loyalty, and serve the people with utmost efficiency.
01:10He went on to suggest that contractors might even be turned into state witnesses against the masterminds of the scheme, but with a warning.
01:20Any such move, he said, must be put under the microscope by the Department of Justice.
01:26From civil society, the message is even more blunt.
01:29Volunteers Against Crime and Corruption President Arsenio Boy Evangelista described the flood control scandal as nothing less than the biggest daylight robbery in the country's history.
01:40We call it the biggest robbery in the history of the nation in broad daylight because it was done systematically with impunity.
02:02Evangelista and his group are highly supportive of President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr.'s implementation of an independent fact-finding commission
02:22to lift the person to lift the lid on the scheme, identify the guilty, and see them face justice.
02:28Ang kailangan po kasi dito, sample eh. May makulong, accountability, yung certainty of jail term.
02:37Ang nangyari nga ngayon dito, yung public office is a public trust at all times.
02:44Pero nangyayari, yung public service, self-service.
02:48Only yesterday, Baguio City Mayor Benjamin Magalong claimed of a well-oiled syndicate running the show in flood control projects
02:56from bidding to design and all the way to implementation.
03:01They can demand about 30-40 percent.
03:04Ganon din yung ibang project na track netting, ang laki-laki dyan, 40 percent, 35 percent.
03:11Sa flood control, siguro mga nandu sa range na yan, 20, 25 percent.
03:18Kasi nga, yung mark-up, hindi gaano.
03:20Three voices, one message.
03:23Unless the law is enforced with fangs, with complete backing from the Marcos Jr. administration,
03:29the chain of corruption will remain unbroken.
03:32Denise Osorio, from the National Television Network, for a new and better Philippines.
