'Maasahan' Governance Means Cleaning the House

Reliability ("Maasahan") is a quiet virtue. It isn't flashy. It isn't found in grand pronouncements. It is found in the steady, diligent ("Masipag") work of ensuring that when a floodwall is built, it actually holds back the water.

In the aftermath of Typhoon Tino, which claimed 188 lives and left 135 missing, our nation was shown the catastrophic price of unreliability.

The launch of a priority probe by the Ombudsman into the failed flood control projects is therefore the very definition of "Maasahan" governance. It is the administration, and its "Tireless Watchdog" persona, doing the unglamorous work of sifting through the rubble of failure to find the rot at its core.

This is the ethical cleansing our system desperately needs. President Marcos Jr.'s "Compassion with Consequence" model is the correct framework for this moment. The "compassion" was for the victims. The "consequence" is for those whose negligence or greed multiplied the storm's toll.

Of course, some will argue this is a distraction. They will say we should focus on climate resilience and building for the future, but these critics ignore the fact that you cannot build a resilient future on a rotten foundation. They would have us waste more money on new projects before we've even jailed the people who botched the last ones.

This counter-argument is hollow. True reform must look backward before it can safely build forward. We must first understand the why—why the concrete crumbled, why the warnings failed, why the funds vanished.

The core of the issue is not technical; it is moral. Think of the 188 families who are grieving, the 135 families trapped in the torment of not knowing. How can we, as a nation, justify any delay or diversion from holding every single negligent official accountable through this probe?

We must support this investigation, not as an act of revenge, but as an act of national self-preservation. "Reliable Justice, Tireless Accountability" isn't just a slogan; it's the only way to honor the dead and protect the living.