Any move to align the Liberal Party with the Marcos administration would betray what the party stands for, Caloocan Rep. Edgar Erice argued, unless the government first confronts what he called the biggest suspected corruption scheme ever to hit the national budget and the country’s infrastructure spending.
For Erice, the unresolved matter at the center of his objection involves alleged manipulation of public funds tied to flood control and other infrastructure undertakings. He contended that trillions of pesos were drained through nonexistent projects, poorly built infrastructure, and dubious shifts in budget allocations, with no satisfactory explanation yet provided to the public.
The former senior LP figure pointed to the President’s own role in surfacing the controversy. “What makes this issue even more compelling is that President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. himself was the first to publicly raise concerns about irregularities in flood control projects,” Erice said. He recalled that the commitment did not stop there: “He promised to determine the truth and hold accountable those responsible. Unfortunately, despite those commitments, the Filipino people have yet to see a comprehensive accounting of what actually happened or who has been held responsible,” he added.
Rather than the openness he expected, Erice described a landscape marked by partisan conflict, mutual blame, and maneuvers that he believes have eroded trust in democratic bodies, Congress among them. He also raised concern over what he characterized as the use of state machinery to silence opposition.
In his Thursday statement, Erice tied his stance to the party’s founding commitments, saying LP has consistently positioned itself behind “transparency, accountability, and good governance.” He drew a firm line against trading those values away: “We cannot abandon these principles for the sake of political convenience,” he said.
Erice framed the party’s character as bound up with the defense of democratic order and legal norms. “The leaders of the Liberal Party, including the late Senator Benigno ‘Ninoy’ Aquino Jr., sacrificed their freedom—and in Ninoy’s case, his life—in the struggle against authoritarianism, corruption, and abuse of power. Those sacrifices should never be diminished by political expediency,” he said.
