OPPOSITION Caloocan City Rep. Edgar Erice has blasted President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. over the latter’s alleged continued failure to resolve the corruption issues hounding his administration especially when evidence would point to him and those close to his circle.
“It’s either complicity or a question of competence,” said Erice, apparently describing the President over his alleged inaction on vital issues specifically on flood control project scams and national budget insertions and diversions, which, to his calculation, have reached P1.45-trillion that begun in 2023 up to 2025.
He described as “the greatest heist in the history” the corruption scandals that allegedly involved infrastructure projects particularly on flood control and anomalous budget insertions under the Marcos administration.
Without pointing at Marcos directly, the veteran lawmaker, during the Pandesal Forum at the Kamuning Bakery and Café owned by columnist Wilson Lee Flores expressed total disappointment over the Marcos administration’s silence on the scandals.
“For me, they simply don’t want to uncover the truth because if they really wanted to know the truth, there would have been an impartial and thorough investigation, which is not happening.”
Justifying his remarks against Marcos, Erice noted that the latter hadn’t bothered to lift a finger when the national budgets from 2023 to 2025 were filled with unlawful insertions at the time the House leadership was held by his first cousin, ex-Speaker Ferdinand Martin Romualdez.
Talking about the anti-political dynasty bill that he filed before the lower chamber, Erice said it would all depend on the President’s sincerity to push for its passage which he filed several times during his previous terms as representative of Caloocan’s District 2 since 2001.
“The key here is if the President can persuade his allies at the House but this early, he’s already acquitted by the super majority at the House, where 80 percent is political dynasty, in the impeachment complaint filed against him.”
“He needs their (congressmen’s) support, so this a challenge to him and a choice too between the devil and the deep blue sea, so to speak,” he added.
