We wrote about ₱81.9 million in unrecouped contractor advances, based on solid COA findings. Nonchalant.
We reported on ₱2.5 million paid to 462 dead senior citizens, just repeating what COA said. Nonchalant.
We detailed how one contractor failed three times and walked away with ₱29.5 million in advances, just like how COA described it. Silence.
It’s beginning to feel less like investigative journalism and more like shouting into the void. Perhaps those studies are right—people really do just read headlines or prefer the inane.
Or maybe they don’t even get that far. Scroll, scroll, scroll. Cat video. Political meme. Oh look, the Philippine looper is in town. Selfie.
Inside City Hall, no heated council sessions. No demands for answers. Just the gentle hum of officials “coordinating closely” and “building cases” while ₱433.5 million in disallowances gather dust alongside three years of “Not Implemented” audit recommendations.
Maybe we’ve become numb to numbers. What’s ₱81.9 million between friends? What’s ₱2.5 million to the dead—they’re not complaining.
When everything is a scandal, nothing is.
Or perhaps the real genius of modern governance is that if you ignore audit findings long enough, people eventually assume there must be a good reason. Surely, they think, if it were really that bad, someone would do something.
Where’s the outrage? If a city government can pay millions to dead people, let contractors keep ₱29.5 million for failed projects, and face zero consequences, then maybe we’ve all become too comfortable with the smell of corruption.
Or maybe everyone’s just waiting for someone else to get angry first. Still waiting.
