The sudden resignation of Speaker Martin Romualdez, after being implicated as the key conspirator in the billions lost to flood control projects—alongside congressman-contractors and his close ally, former House Appropriation Chair Rep. Zaldy Co—raises more questions than it answers. By stepping down and endorsing Rep. Bodjie Dy, a staunch ally of presidential son Zandro Marcos, Romualdez may have relinquished the gavel, but has he truly relinquished responsibility?
For Juan dela Cruz, the lingering questions remain: Is Romualdez now off the hook simply because he denounced the speakership? Does accountability die the moment one resigns from power? And what of the President—does his integrity suddenly shine brighter when it is clear that he, too, benefited from the political machinery his cousin once led?
Resignation is not redemption. If anything, it looks like a carefully staged act in a political circus where clowns distract the public while acrobats maneuver behind the curtains. It is a performance designed not to seek justice, but to protect dynastic interests.
In the end, Filipinos are once again left asking themselves: Are we to be proud of a system where the powerful simply bow out when caught, only to reemerge in another form, with another title, shielded by the same walls of influence? Or are we to accept that accountability in this country is nothing more than a disappearing act, performed at the expense of the people’s trust?
Philippine politics has long been a theater of survival, not of service. And unless the people demand more than spectacles, the cycle of betrayal will continue—leaving us with the bitter truth that resignation, in this land, is never the end of guilt, only the beginning of another cover-up.
