Senator Alan Cayetano urges Filipinos to reject distractions, focus on flood control scandal

Senate Minority Leader Alan Peter Cayetano called on Filipinos to resist what he described as the "politics of distraction" and instead focus on exposing corruption behind the unresolved flood control scandal, which he said deserves the country's sustained attention.

In a reflection posted on his Facebook page on July 16, Cayetano said, “The willingness to investigate almost everything and everyone seems matched only by the reluctance — nay, the refusal — to fully pursue the one issue that deserves the deepest and most sustained scrutiny of our time: the flood control scandal.”

His remarks came as several members of the Senate minority bloc face separate legal cases and investigations, including the National Bureau of Investigation's planned probe into alleged irregularities linked to the 2019 Southeast Asian Games which Cayetano helped organize as the former chairman of the Philippine SEA Games Organizing Committee.

Cayetano recalled that President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.'s "Mahiya naman kayo!" statement during last year's State of the Nation Address had raised expectations that the government would thoroughly investigate corruption in flood control projects and identify those responsible.

“But somewhere along the way, disruption became distraction,” he said.

Cayetano compared the succession of controversies and investigations to a magician's illusion. “While everyone watches one hand, the real trick happens with the other. And like every successful illusion, it only works if the audience keeps looking where it is told to look,” he said.

He also expressed concern that some leaders from the political, religious, business, and media sectors had contributed to the distractions. “When the watchdogs join the attack dogs, we are really in trouble,” he said.

“The elite — business, religious, political, and civil society leaders — are not quick to ask for change. ‘OK naman tayo’ is repeatedly heard and said behind closed doors,” Cayetano said.

“Then what we have reaped starts germinating, and the time of reckoning begins. Moral, economic, and social crises hit us, back to back to back,” he added.

He urged leaders and the public to confront the country's problems directly and work toward institutional reform.

“If we truly desire national transformation, then we must resist the politics of distraction and embrace the disruption that truth requires,” he said.

“Not disruption for the sake of conflict, but disruption that exposes corruption. Disruption that restores trust, that strengthens our institutions, that prepares the ground so future generations can inherit a nation built not on illusion, but on truth,” he added.