‘Mother of All Scandals’: Winnie Monsod Weighs in on Flood Control Mess

Corruption scandals are nothing new for Solita “Winnie” Garduño Collás-Monsod, who has been a fixture in Philippine economics and governance since the presidency of Corazon Aquino. With the government’s multi-billion peso flood control scandal under investigation, Monsod places it in historical context: corruption comparable to Marcos Sr.’s plunder, now embedded in legislative pork barrels disguised under new names. “It’s rather striking that the biggest scandals occur in Marcos administrations,” she notes.

From 1986 to 1989, she led the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA), later reorganized this year into the Department of Economy, Planning, and Development (DEPDev). Outside her political career, she became a household name through public affairs programs such as Saksi, Debate with Mare at Pare, Palaban, and Bawal Ang Pasaway kay Mareng Winnie. She also continues to teach as professor emerita at the UP School of Economics.

In this interview with Rolling Stone Philippines, Monsod spares little criticism for legislators flaunting luxury watches, institutions that evade accountability, and a system that still leaves ordinary citizens picking up the burden of oversight.

You have seen many corruption scandals throughout the years. How does the flood control scandal fit into the longer history of corruption in the Philippines?

Mother of all scandals. It shows a vivid picture of the depth and the breadth of corruption in the Philippines involving the legislature. I mean, it’s the largest we’ve had, other than, of course, during the time of Ferdinand Marcos Sr., when the whole economy was affected. It’s rather striking that the biggest scandals occur in Marcos administrations.

Why do you think corruption has been so persistent in our political systems? What safeguards have been placed, and what’s missing?

We have placed so many safeguards but nobody pays attention to them. For example, the Supreme Court already put a safeguard on pork barrels, because these are nothing but pork barrels that have been distorted beyond recognition, right? But somehow, Congress has been able to get around it through nomenclature changes and new strategies.

But what is important is that it is clear that the motives are malicious. The motives are for personal gain. It is clear that the motives for this pork barrel are not for their district or anything, but for their own personal gain.

In an episode of Bawal Ang Pasaway in 2015, you interviewed Heart Evangelista and Senator Chiz Escudero, and you sort of questioned their ostentatious display of wealth. What do you make of their involvement in this controversy now?

I don’t even remember what happened during that interview 10 years ago. But Heart is not involved in this. I mean, we put her in there because Heart is very ostentatious about what she’s wearing. But she’s an influencer. I don’t take that against her.

But I take it against Chiz. I’ve seen YouTube vlogs about the watches he’s wearing and what they cost. And he’s not the only one. All the other senators and congressmen. And I ask the question, how can they afford those watches on the salary of a congressman? Unless they’re getting a lot more than they’re showing us.

I mean, you don’t have to go to flood control projects, for God’s sake. How can a senator get a watch worth P2 million or P5 million? How can he afford that? It depends on their salary. A thousand pesos or whatever a month is not enough, unless their budgets give them so much more that we don’t know about. And I don’t like that. That should not be the case for all these legislators.

We are forgetting one major principle: these people are our servants. They are not our kings. Several laws say that these people should lead modest lives, but these are not modest lives they’re leading. The scandal just highlighted all these things all of a sudden. But even without the scandal, you know, they should be called and asked, “Is that a modest life you’re living?”

Some people believe the government wouldn’t be investigating the flood control projects now if it weren’t for President Bongbong Marcos bringing it up in his State of the Nation Address. What do you make of that?

When I first heard President Marcos say that during the SONA, and then there was applause from the floor, I felt it was a sarswela. Because the ones who were guilty of the whole thing were people in front of him. They were the legislators. I really had a very big laugh.

But I later found out — although this is speculation on my part — that this thing was going to blow. He already knew that this thing was going to blow when he decided to go ahead of the curve. It was a strategy, but that may be malicious speculation on my part. Whether that’s true or not is anybody’s guess. But the fact that he brought it out, well, then I should commend him for it.

Marcos and other government officials are saying that the stolen taxpayers’ money needs to be returned to the people. What does that actually mean? What processes go into recovering stolen wealth, and where should it go?

If they want to return the money to the people, they should freeze all the assets of the congressmen and senators now, and unfreeze as the senators and congressmen prove that their assets are not ill-gotten. Don’t give them two years to dispose of those assets, for God’s sake. If you’re going to do any freezing, freeze it now.

They’ve frozen the assets of contractors and all that. These contractors are small-time. I’m sure the people know that the big-time crooks here are the congressmen. I’m not saying all congressmen and I’m not saying all senators. But some senators and some congressmen will be exonerated. Unless I see that happening, I don’t believe in “the money must be returned to the people.”

I would like to see all the senators come out with their SALNs. Because they know that their institution is on the [chopping] block, right? They know that their institution is under suspicion. So if I were a member of that institution, I’d say, “Okay, here’s my SALN for all to see.” But nobody’s doing that. No one in the House of Representatives is doing that.

They’re bringing out Zaldy Co and Martin Romualdez. It is obvious to me that the chairman of the appropriations committee is going to be listening very, very closely to his boss. And who is his boss? The House speaker. But it is not just the chairman of the appropriations committee. It’s the members of the appropriations committee, particularly the vice chairs, who represent the vested interests of some people.

The Senate investigation is still going on, but it’s getting slower and slower. They’re trying to say that the others are liars. Everybody’s pointing fingers at each other. I think the Blue Ribbon Committee should be doing more than that.

But if we are going to depend our future on these legislators and our officials, nothing’s going to happen. Where do these flood control projects, farms, roads, markets, and bridges occur? In barangays. So the people of the barangays and municipalities should take it upon themselves to investigate and audit.

After the EDSA revolution, that’s what the people did. And I’m just waiting for somebody, the church or civil service organizations, to form themselves on the barangay level or the municipal level. After EDSA, President Corazon Aquino said that all projects have to be listed with who they contract, et cetera, et cetera, so that the people could inspect. So easy to do. Let’s do it again, 40 years after we should have done it.