22/08/2025
FROM ₱10 BILLION TO ₱31.6 BILLION: When Napoles Was Just the Prologue
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Kung akala natin na ang ₱10-billion pork barrel scam ni Janet Lim-Napoles ang pinakamalaking pagnanakaw sa kaban ng bayan, think again. That was Act I.
What we are seeing now under B**gbong Marcos Jr. is Act II: the Discaya flood control empire, with ₱31.6 billion in contracts - tatlong beses na mas malaki kaysa kay Napoles - while ordinary Filipinos literally drown in floodwaters.
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⚠️ Napoles: ₱10 Billion of Betrayal
Sa panahon ni Noynoy Aquino, the Napoles PDAF scam shook the nation.
Fake NGOs, bogus projects, ghost beneficiaries - all siphoning public funds.
The price tag: around ₱10 billion.
The difference?
May accountability.
Napoles was convicted of plunder and sentenced to reclusion perpetua.
Senators like Jinggoy Estrada, B**g Revilla, and Juan Ponce Enrile were indicted.
The Ombudsman, COA, and Sandiganbayan acted.
It was painful, but it showed the system could still work.
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⚠️ Discaya: ₱31.6 Billion, Flooding the Nation in Corruption
Now, enter the Discaya family. According to reports, nine companies linked to them bagged ₱31.6 billion worth of flood control contracts since 2022.
That’s not just pork - that’s the whole piggery.
Six percent of the entire national flood control budget flowed into the hands of a single family.
And yet, every typhoon season, lubog pa rin ang mga komunidad.
Rivers supposedly “dredged” remain clogged.
Ghost projects are everywhere.
At ang mas nakakagalit?
The Discayas flaunt their luxury cars and mansion in TV interviews, habang ang taumbayan ay nakalubog sa baha.
This isn’t just corruption - it’s insult on top of injury.
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⚖️ The Law: Black and White
Let’s not pretend may gray area pa dito.
• 1987 Constitution, Art. XI, Sec. 1: “Public office is a public trust.”
• RA 3019 (Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act): Punishes partiality and unwarranted benefits.
• RA 7080 (Plunder Law): Any ill-gotten wealth of ₱50 million and above through a series of acts = plunder.
- Napoles = ₱10 billion → convicted.
- Discaya = ₱31.6 billion → three times bigger, still walking free.
âž– If Napoles was plunder, then Discaya is plunder on steroids.
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📍 Duterte’s Pharmally: The Blueprint for Impunity
👉 Pero baka sabihin ng iba: “Eh ano naman?
Ganyan na talaga.”
Wrong.
Look back at Duterte.
Pharmally Pharmaceutical, a small company with 645,000 capitalization, bagged ₱11 billion in pandemic contracts.
Overpriced masks, expired test kits, billions down the drain.
Senate hearings revealed everything, but what happened?
Walang nakulong na Cabinet official.
Duterte barred his Cabinet officials from attending the Senate hearings
Duterte himself protected his men.
That was the era of impunity.
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🛑 Marcos Jr.’s Defining Test
Now, it’s BBM’s turn.
Does he have the political will to act?
Or will he, like Duterte, let plunderers live like kings while Filipinos drown like rats in their own homes?
The Discaya scandal is his litmus test.
- If he orders the Ombudsman to indict, COA to blacklist, DPWH to clean house, then maybe history will remember him differently.
- But if he stays silent and let plunderers laugh all the way to the bank, he proves himself a copy-paste of Duterte - different face, same impunity.
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📍 A Nation Drowning in Two Floods
We are drowning not just in water, but in corruption.
• Napoles was ₱10 billion.
• Pharmally was ₱11 billion.
• Discaya is ₱31.6 billion.
Each scandal bigger, bolder, more brazen than the last.
Each time, justice more elusive.
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📌 Conclusion: History’s Verdict
History already judged Napoles as the face of pork barrel plunder.
History already judged Duterte as the face of impunity.
Now, history waits for B**gbong Marcos Jr.
Will he prove he is a leader by following Aquino’s path - allowing the law to strike even the powerful, showing that no mansion, no luxury car, and no last name is bigger than the Republic?
Or will he prove he is a coward, another Duterte, another protector of thieves, letting ₱31.6 billion vanish while Filipinos drown?
👉 President BBM, the choice is yours. We dare you to punish the corrupt as Aquino once did - or drown in history as the man who let the floodwaters of corruption wash away the nation.
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📚 SOURCES:
- Inquirer: Sandiganbayan upholds plunder conviction of Napoles (April 2, 2019)
đź”— https://newsinfo.inquirer.net/1102080/sandiganbayan-upholds-plunder-conviction-of-napoles/amp
- Rappler: Sandiganbayan affirms Napoles’ bribery conviction, triples penalty to P79M (July 11, 2024)
đź”— https://www.rappler.com/philippines/sandignbayan-affirms-napoles-bribery-conviction-july-2024/
- Bilyonaryo News Channel: 9 Discaya-linked firms got P31.6B in flood control deals (Aug 12, 2025)
đź”— https://bnc.ph/9-discaya-linked-firms-got-p31-6b-in-flood-control-deals/news/
- Bilyonaryo News Channel: 9 na kompanya ng mga Discaya, nakakuha ng bilyon sa flood control projects (Aug 13, 2025)
đź”— https://youtu.be/sZ_Hs4ynH9c?si=pSUNNhHU7J9yiLO6
- PhilStar: Court convicts Napoles, Revilla’s aide in plunder case while boss goes free (Dec 7, 2018)
đź”— https://www.philstar.com/headlines/2018/12/07/1875004/court-convicts-napoles-revillas-aide-plunder-case-while-boss-goes-free/amp/
- Rappler: LIST: Everything you need to know about the Pharmally pandemic deals scandal (Dec 17, 2021)
đź”— https://www.rappler.com/newsbreak/iq/list-everything-need-to-know-pharmally-covid-19-pandemic-deals-scandal/
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