Open Letter To President Ferdinand Marcos, Jr.

Mr. President,

We laud your decisive action in creating an Independent Commission on Infrastructure and leading the investigation of ghost flood control projects. This bold step sends a strong signal that accountability and transparency must prevail in our government.

However, this must not become another layer of bureaucracy. We already have agencies mandated to ensure accountability: the BIR on tax evasion, COMELEC on illegal campaign funds, the Ombudsman on graft, corruption, bribery, and perjury, the COA on government spending (including confidential funds), and the AMLC on money laundering. What we need now is not duplication, but decisive coordination, enforcement, and results.

Most urgently, we urge you to prioritize the recovery of stolen and bribed money given to lawmakers and government officials, the cancellation of contracts for ghost projects, and the refund of government payments to contractors of anomalous projects. Only then can taxpayers begin to see justice.

Equally important, we urge you to rationalize our ₱6 trillion national budget—reduce it to an amount that reflects our nation’s true needs and what the BIR and Customs can realistically collect. This means eliminating confidential funds, unnecessary unprogrammed appropriations, pork-barrel type insertions, and wasteful projects. By trimming excess, we reduce reliance on ballooning debt, which now exceeds ₱6 trillion, and restore discipline in fiscal governance.

Finally, the BIR must suspend audit on MSMEs—the lifeblood of our economy—and instead focus its resources on investigating government contractors, implicated officials, and lawmakers who allegedly benefited from bribes and kickbacks in the ₱2 trillion flood control projects from 2017 to 2025. Tax justice demands that those who stole from the people must be held accountable, pay their taxes, and face perpetual disqualification under the law.

Mr. President, this is not just about ghost projects—it is about restoring the Filipino people’s trust in government. It is about proving to the world that the Philippines is serious in fighting corruption, enforcing the rule of law, and promoting a sustainable, credible investment climate.

For every peso stolen is a hospital unequipped, a classroom unbuilt, and a future betrayed.

Filipino Taxpayer,

Mon Abrea