CARTOON BY: AARON PAUL C. CARIL
EDITORIAL
Honor the dead, serve the living
Today, as the Bohol Tribune reaches its readers on All Saints’ Day, remembrance must mean more than flowers, candles and whispered prayers. Let us also remember our departed national leaders—not as flawless saints, but as human beings whose finest acts placed country above comfort and public duty above personal gain. Their graves invite reflection; their examples demand action. A nation honors its dead most honestly when it refuses to bury the principles for which they lived.
Ramon Magsaysay gave public service a clear moral direction: toward those with the least power. His credo declared, “I believe that he who has less in life should have more in law.” He sought to make that conviction tangible by insisting that the armed forces respect ordinary people and their property. The lesson is not that the poor need a powerful patron, but that government owes them protection as a right. A farmer’s harvest, a laborer’s wages and a family’s roof deserve more attention than a politician’s applause.
For Bohol, remembrance has a familiar name: Carlos P. Garcia, the son of Talibon who became president. His “Filipino First” policy sought to strengthen Filipino participation in the national economy. Those two words should still trouble the conscience of anyone entrusted with public money. Filipino first—not political families first, favored contractors first or campaign financiers first. We need not endorse every decision of his administration to recover that essential challenge: national leadership must enlarge the people’s opportunities, not merely the influence of those already close to power.
Benigno “Ninoy” Aquino Jr. left an even starker measure of devotion: “The Filipino is worth dying for.” His return home ended in assassination; Corazon Aquino subsequently gave moral force to the peaceful struggle against dictatorship. As president, she restored democratic institutions, limited her own powers and eventually yielded office to an elected successor.
These were not perfect lives or uncomplicated administrations. But their enduring lesson is unmistakable: public service sometimes demands risking one’s safety, surrendering one’s power and trusting citizens more than one’s own entitlement to rule.
Against these standards, today’s flood-control scandal is a moral disgrace, not merely a procurement problem. Court cases involving alleged ghost projects, public officials and contractors demand more than televised anger and promises of a crackdown. Charges are not convictions, and guilt must be established through due process. But the administration’s duty to disclose records, protect investigations and deliver functioning flood defenses cannot wait for the last verdict. Money intended to keep communities safe must never become somebody’s private harvest. Every fraudulent project, once proved, represents protection stolen from people who cannot bargain with the next storm.
The budget controversy makes the indictment of our governing system sharper still. The Supreme Court has declared the 2024 and 2025 budget laws unconstitutional over congressional increases beyond the President’s recommended totals, and struck down specified unprogrammed-fund provisions in the 2026 budget. Standby appropriations are not inherently unlawful; unchecked spending authority is the danger.
President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. and Congress owe the country transparent allocations, traceable disbursements and accountability that reaches allies as readily as opponents. Publish the amendments. Open the contracts. Recover money unlawfully taken. Build flood defenses that actually protect people. A budget is not a politicians’ spoils chest, and flood control is not a license to loot. On this day of remembrance, honor the dead by serving the living—or stop pretending to deserve their trust.