Espiritu said reviving the spirit of the peaceful revolt that toppled the Marcos dictatorial regime would empower Filipinos to hold public officials accountable for corruption-tainted infrastructure projects.

“People Power can be manifested in many ways. That is really intervening directly when (the) government is incapable of addressing a very serious problem,” he said in an interview on Bilyonaryo News Channel’s “At The Forefront” programme.

“Hindi kayo kailangan pumunta ng EDSA… Maningil kayo sa mga local officials ninyo. I-expose ninyo lahat ng irregularity dyan sa nangyayari sa mga flood control projects sa local area ninyo,” [“You don’t need to go to EDSA... Demand accountability from your local officials. Expose all the irregularities happening in the flood control projects in your local area”] he told BNC host Karen Jimeno.

He also proposed a citizens’ audit, which he described as a “mass movement” tool to allow civil society organisations and labour groups to participate in scrutinising the budget process of infrastructure projects.

“I think ’yung clamor ngayon ay talagang itulak na magkaroon ng accountability, matignan lahat ito, ma-scrutinize, ma-imbestigahan, ma-identify ang mga culpable people para masugpo na ’yang sindikato na gumagalaw dyan sa mga flood control projects,” [“I think the clamour now is really to push for accountability, to examine all of this, scrutinise it, investigate it, identify the culpable people so we can eliminate the syndicate operating in these flood control projects”] he said.

The labour leader stressed that the blame for the anomalous projects should not be pinned solely on contractors, but also on politicians who control funding.

“Para itong adultery. It takes two to tango. Hindi naman makakakuha ng bilyon-bilyon ang mga contractor o DPWH official kapag walang mga sponsor ng project na most likely are congressmen,” [“This is like adultery. It takes two to tango. Contractors or Department of Public Works and Highways officials wouldn’t be able to get billions if there weren’t project sponsors who are most likely congressmen.”] he said.

Senator Panfilo “Ping” Lacson [2] had earlier claimed that at least 67 members of the House of Representatives were directly involved in fraudulent infrastructure projects.

President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. [3] had previously urged the public to report questionable infrastructure projects through the sambungsapangulo.ph portal after disclosing the top 15 contractors that cornered ₱100 billion [Approximately €1.6 billion] worth of flood control projects in the past three years.

Cali Asajar