EDITORIAL: Flooded Fortunes

The spectacle surrounding the Discaya family — their growing fleet of luxury vehicles, allegations of corruption, and the dramatic raid by the Bureau of Customs — offers a sobering window into the persistent rot in the intersection of business, politics, and public infrastructure in the Philippines.

At the heart of the matter is not just the 28 high-end vehicles now in government custody, but the glaring contradiction between the public service ethos and the opulence accumulated by those claiming to serve.

That former Pasig mayoral candidate Sarah Discaya and her family were able to amass such wealth while being involved in public projects — particularly flood control — raises serious questions not just about legality, but about the morality and equity of our systems.

Even more alarming is that this comes in the wake of a string of anomalous flood control contracts, worth over P30 billion, secured by firms linked to the Discayas. That such critical infrastructure — meant to protect lives and livelihoods — could be compromised by alleged ghost projects or substandard work is an affront to public trust.

In a country perennially devastated by floods, the implications are not just financial; they are life-threatening.

The surrender of 16 more luxury vehicles following the raid and public backlash, while symbolically significant, does little to absolve the Discayas of the deeper accountability they owe.

Their lawyer’s explanation — that vehicles were moved as a “pre-emptive measure” against flooding — borders on satire, given the family’s alleged role in botched flood mitigation works.

The Bureau of Customs must be commended for acting decisively, but their work is far from over. The true measure of justice lies not in the seizure of assets but in the uncovering of the truth, the prosecution of the guilty, and the recovery of what the public has lost.

This case must not end in a settlement or fade from headlines without meaningful consequence.

Furthermore, the government’s resolve will be tested not just in this investigation but in whether the pattern it exposes is truly broken. President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s directive to crack down on smuggling and ensure accountability is welcome — but it must extend to shielding the processes that allowed these firms to thrive under the very same administration.

It is easy to be outraged by the image of a Cadillac Escalade or a Porsche Cayenne sitting in a contractor’s warehouse while floodwaters rise in Bulacan. But outrage must now give way to reform. The revocation of licenses by the Philippine Contractors Accreditation Board is a start. The congressional and Senate probes must dig deeper. And the Department of Justice must follow through, wherever the evidence leads — even if it implicates powerful names and exposes uncomfortable truths.

The Discaya scandal is not just about vehicles or vanished funds. It is about the erosion of trust in a system that too often allows wealth and influence to obscure accountability. The Filipino people deserve better — and they deserve answers.