An arrest warrant is being prepared for Cezarah “Sarah” Discaya, the businesswoman once dubbed the Philippines’ “queen of flood control”, after prosecutors accused her of pocketing millions from a government project that was paid for but never built.
Discaya’s impending arrest – expected within days, according to President Ferdinand Marcos Jnr – would mark one of the most high-profile developments in the multibillion-peso flood control corruption scandal that has roiled Manila’s political establishment.
Yet analysts say her detention, while symbolically potent, is unlikely to stem the rising tide of public anger with a system many Filipinos believe enabled corruption to flourish unchecked.
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The case against Discaya “can definitely be construed as just chasing the small fry”, Gino Trinidad, a political science instructor at the Ateneo de Manila University, told This Week in Asia. “The investigations have implicated other politicians, including those formerly allied with the president.”
On Friday, the Office of the Ombudsman filed corruption charges against Discaya, the president of her company St Timothy Construction and eight officials from the Department of Public Works and Highways over a 100-million-peso (US$1.7 million) unbuilt flood control project in Davao Occidental province.
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