DDS rides on corruption issue to push Duterte narratives—experts
CORRUPTION composite image from INQUIRER stock and files
MANILA, Philippines — With the intensifying outrage against government corruption, the Dutertes are “positioning themselves as the voice of accountability, even if their own record is far from clean.”
This was stressed by political scientist Cleve Arguelles, pointing out that the Dutertes are riding on the issue of corruption to weaken the administration, which they were once allied with.
Arguelles, president and CEO of the public opinion research company WR Numero Research, told INQUIRER.net that “the Dutertes have been searching for political openings to weaken Marcos and his allies since their coalition fractured.”
Marcos and Vice President Sara Duterte were once in the so-called UniTeam that won in the 2022 elections, but only two years later, the alliance collapsed.
The Dutertes eventually saw themselves hanging by a thread — Sara was impeached by the House of Representatives, while her father, Rodrigo Duterte, was arrested by the International Criminal Court for crimes against humanity.
So now that they are “hold[ing] less and less political influence in government, they appear increasingly desperate — riding on any issue they can to claw back relevance and to hit the administration.”
Corruption scandal
Last July, Marcos hit in his State of the Nation Address the corruption that has led to defective infrastructure works that failed to mitigate flooding when the southwest monsoon and a series of typhoons brought heavy rain.
A few weeks later, he released a list of 15 contractors that cornered 20 percent of flood control projects, worth P100 billion, from 2022 to 2025.
The list covered companies linked to Rep. Elizaldy Co (Ako Bicol), who had chaired the House Committee on Appropriations in the past three years, as well as the Centerways Construction and Development Inc. of Lawrence Lubiano.
READ: Escudero, contractor asked: Explain P30-M donation
Lubiano was one of the individuals who donated to former Senate President Francis “Chiz” Escudero’s election bid in 2022.
But on the center stage, too, are the Discayas, who previously stated that their lives got better when they started engaging with the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) for government contracts, although she later claimed that the video had been spliced.
READ: 9 Discaya firms stripped of license as contractors
As Sarah Discaya herself said, it was in 2016 when they began contracting flood control works with the DPWH.
READ: Vico Sotto: Discayas own 2 of top 15 firms in gov’t flood control deals
Last Tuesday, Sept. 9, Deputy Speaker and Iloilo Rep. Janette Garin grilled Sarah’s husband, Curlee, over the exponential rise of their companies in 2017, or some three years since they first contracted government infrastructure works.
Rodrigo was the one in Malacañang back then.
Garin, pointing to data from the Securities and Exchange Commission, said the companies collectively posted P99 million in revenue in 2016, which then grew to P1.3 billion, or by a staggering 952 percent, in 2017.
READ: Discaya grilled over exponential growth of nine firms
They had their highest revenue in 2022 at P20.5 billion.
Downplaying ‘Duterte links’
But political scientist Maria Ela Atienza, a professor at the University of the Philippines Diliman, stressed, the Dutertes, or at least their allies and supporters, are trying to pin the blame only on the present administration.
“They are downplaying the possible involvement of the previous administration in these anomalies,” she told INQUIRER.net.
As Arguelles explained, scandals involving corruption “resonate with Filipinos’ frustrations about elite impunity,” so if the Dutertes are seeking to weaken the Marcos administration, the issue on lost government funds is a “fertile ground.”
As stated by the Department of Finance, the economy has lost P42.3 billion to P118.5 billion in the last two years because of flood control projects that were incomplete or did not exist at all.
It even pointed out that the economy could have expanded by six percent if these infrastructure works had not been impaired by corruption, a problem that has always beset Filipinos.
“By amplifying or weaponizing the controversy, the Dutertes can position themselves as the voice of accountability, even if their own record on corruption is far from clean,” he said.
Arguelles claimed that when “they point their finger at the Marcos administration, four fingers point back at them.”
One of Rodrigo’s sons, Davao City Rep. Paolo Duterte, received P51 billion in infrastructure funds in the last three years of the administration of his father, a DPWH official said.
READ: Exec confirms Rep. Duterte district’s P51-B infra funds in dad’s term
However, Paolo hit back, saying in a statement that some lawmakers were only diverting the issue on corruption in flood control works when they raised the billions worth of resources that his district had.
‘Selective memory’
Arguelles said the controversy allows the Dutertes to recast the Marcos administration as the epicenter of corruption and misgovernance, while ignoring that some of the individuals involved, like the Discayas, started expanding in 2016.
READ: From ‘roads to riches’
The issue, he said, “rallies their base, distracts from scrutiny of their own record, and creates political pressure points against the leadership of the Senate and the House of Representatives that have aligned more closely with Marcos.”
“How they wish to weaponize this moment to get back at Congress, especially the leadership of the House of Representatives, which have been tireless in their investigations of how the Dutertes misused government funds and abused power,” he said.
Groups openly linked to the Dutertes have scheduled street protests on Friday, Sept. 12 and Saturday, Sept. 13, to call for “transparency, accountability, peace and security.”
As the Hakbang ng Maisug stressed in a statement, a lot of Filipinos are now coming together for something that is “much bigger than us” — to “save the Philippines from corruption.”
However, Arguelles said they have “selective memory,” pointing out that their “narrative is crafted to suggest continuity of corruption but with the Marcoses as the culprits, not the Dutertes.”
He pointed out that “by highlighting the present-day culpability and remaining silent on their own past, they simplify the story for the public: Marcos equals corruption, Duterte equals accountability.”
“But the truth is, they have enabled each other as former coalition partners, and their disagreement today is rooted in factional politics, not in any genuine anti-corruption motivation,” Arguelles said.
As Atienza said, “technically, they want to shield the Dutertes from involvement in the issue of corruption, so their allies in Congress are trying to shift the discussion on the present administration.”
Senate President Vicente “Tito” Sotto had expressed suspicions that the affidavit filed by the Discayas, which linked several lawmakers to alleged corruption in flood control works, was “edited.”
“We have suspicions that the affidavit had been edited,” he said in an interview with One PH’s Sa Totoo Lang, explaining why he did not sign the request of Sen. Rodante Marcoleta to place the Discayas in the witness protection program.
