16/11/2025
RTC as anti-graft court...
A Small Step Toward Accountability — Now the Provinces Must Follow
In a country long numbed by corruption scandals that evaporate before reaching a courtroom, the Supreme Court’s decision to designate Regional Trial Courts (RTCs) as special anti-graft courts under Republic Act 10660 is a welcome—if overdue—step toward credible reform.
For months, the nation has followed the Senate’s wide-ranging probe into the ₱1-trillion flood-control scandal, a scheme so sprawling that it spans districts, agencies, and political fiefdoms. Yet outside Manila’s televised hearings, the local machinery of accountability has remained disturbingly quiet.
Nowhere is this silence more deafening than in Negros Oriental.
Despite having three DPWH districts, three district engineers, and more than a hundred flood-control projects, the province has seen no parallel congressional inquiry, no publicized administrative cases, and no confirmation that any district engineer or DPWH official is currently under internal or criminal investigation.
This absence of local action is alarming. Negros Oriental alone lists 112 flood-control projects on the government’s Sumbong sa Pangulo dashboard. Among these, 14 projects are tied to the Discaya group—one of the contractors now under Senate scrutiny and included among the “top 15” firms flagged for suspicious patterns in project awards nationwide.
And yet, not a single local contractor, politician, or bagman has publicly been called to account.
Against this bleak backdrop, the Supreme Court’s move—while administrative in nature—signals a shift long demanded by citizens weary of national investigations that rarely touch provincial power structures.
Justice, Finally Closer to Home
Under the new designation, select RTC branches will have exclusive jurisdiction over corruption cases arising from infrastructure projects. Judges assigned to these courts will undergo specialized training at the Philippine Judicial Academy, with modules taught by Sandiganbayan Associate Justices, covering the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act, cyber warrants, forensic evidence, and rules on plunder cases.
This is not merely bureaucratic housekeeping. It rebalances the scales.
For decades, corruption cases originating from far-flung provinces stalled in Metro Manila courts overwhelmed with caseloads and insulated from local political realities. By empowering RTCs in the regions—and by mandating the Office of the Court Administrator to monitor infrastructure-related corruption filings—the Supreme Court is creating clearer pathways for complaints, evidence-gathering, and eventual prosecution.
It is a reform that, if taken seriously, could finally pierce local impunity.
But Will Negros Oriental Finally Move?
The central question remains:
When will Negros Oriental begin its own process of accountability?
For a province whose residents are repeatedly battered by storms, substandard public works are not merely financial crimes. They are threats to life and livelihood. The absence of action from district offices and congressional representatives is no longer just disappointing—it is indefensible.
If flood-control budgets were misused, it should not require a Senate subpoena to uncover it. Local leaders have always had the power to open inquiries, conduct audits, summon project engineers, and file referrals to the Ombudsman and COA. They simply chose not to.
A Turning Point—If We Take It
The Supreme Court’s designation of provincial anti-graft courts gives citizens a new lever. It brings the battle against corruption out of air-conditioned hearing rooms in Manila and into the provinces where the alleged crimes were committed—where the roads crumble, where the rivers overflow, where the public can see the defects with their own eyes.
But courts only act when cases are filed.
The burden now shifts to local governments, watchdogs, whistleblowers, and citizens to bring forward the evidence that senators have only begun to uncover.
Negros Oriental has waited long enough.
If justice is to be real—not rhetorical—it must finally shine where corruption has thrived the most: in the provinces.
This Supreme Court move is a step in the right direction.
But the first step means nothing unless Negros Oriental takes the next one.
