Mayors, Kaps Happy: Marcos Reduces Greed of Cong.

 By Mortz C. Ortigoza, MPA

The 1,642 city and municipal mayors and the 42, 010 barangay chairmen all over the Philippines have been smiling nowadays after President Bongbong Marcos expose the avarice of national officials in his State of the Nation Address (SONA) last July 28, 2025.

“Mahiya naman kayo sa inyong kapwa Pilipino!” (Have some shame towards your fellow Filipinos!),” he told the 318 members House of Representa-thieves, er, Representatives.

Senator Jinggoy Estrada, former Senator Bong Revilla, bigtime contractors like the showboating couple Curlee and Sarah Discaya and Maria Roma Anegline Romando, top brass of the Department of Public Works and Highways leads by their former secretary Manuel Bonoan are in the slammer or have posted bail while they face trial on the heinous crime of plunder.

Kickbacks by national officials like congressmen to hundreds of billions of pesos of government infrastructures all over the country have been expanded that many top officials of cities, towns, and the villages had their palms grease, too, susmariosep!

The grease comes from the P200, 000 from the ₱8-billion financial assistance dubbed as Bawat Barangay Makikinabang Program where fund allocation of P100, 000 is given directly to five local college students (Presidential Scholars) who receive ₱20,000 each to help finish their studies, and another P100, 000 for grassroots development, such as buying street lights, safety equipment, CCTVs, or backup power generators for health and evacuation centers.

Corruption this early of the designation of five tertiary student scholars to get through merits (like average grade in high school) has reverberated in the public where a Kapitan arbitrarily selected his kin and those of his favorite council members. There was even a village where the chairman divided the P100,000 among 13 of the scholars who are his relatives and those of his kagawad. Naging labing-tatlo ang lima na dapat maging scholar, anak ng bakang dalaga?!

The other is the P5 million from the expanded Local Government Support Fund (LGSF) under President Marcos’ Bagong Pilipinas Rice Program. This fund provides direct national financial support to LGUs specifically earmarked to purchase and distribute free or subsidized rice to vulnerable families. The LGSF allocation for this year has a funding of P58 billion.

Chief executives of the local government units (LGUs) I met however welcome the move of President Marcos to directly download from the Department of Budget and Management the funds intended for these two projects to the bank account of the LGUs instead of the bank account of the DPWH.

Have you heard about a mayor crying foul after he lobbied for a P50 million dike in Manila and later found out that the regional director of the DPWH gave the twenty percent share of the 100 percent payment to a contractor to a congress member instead of the Hizzoner who spent time and effort?

A lady mayor told me several years ago that her congressman called and chided her because of her and her husband persistence to get the S.O.P – colloquial in the Philippines of a 20 to 30 percent cut on the total worth of a government project – from the multi-million pesos project from the National Irrigation Administration.

“Kami ni mister ko ang lumakad noong project pero noong ni download na sa DPWH, kinuha ni kongresman ang S.O.P niya,” she deplored to me.

With the Bawat Barangay Makikinabang Program, Bagong Pilipinas Rice Program, and other future projects being downloaded by Malacanang to the coffers of the LGUs, many mayors and kapitans are all smiles now as the contractors and suppliers surreptitiously sneaked to their hand the wads of sums as their share to the wealth being spread by the President.

If many are happy in this forsaken country, who will help the enemy of the state destabilize the beleaguered main occupant of the Palace near the Pasig River?