Flanked by brightly-lit Christmas trees inside a hall where he’s welcomed heads of state and held high-level meetings, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. was in a somber mood as he spoke to the media about what’s been a “really…difficult time.”

“I knew that what we were starting would really be destructive and would really…but we are trying precisely to change the entire system. And when you have to excise a cancer out of such a complicated system, you need to do some very dangerous surgery and to do that, and when you do that, you will bleed. And that is what we have to go through,” said Marcos on Wednesday evening, December 3, during a dinner with journalists assigned to cover Malacañang.

Dressed casually in a loose button down and pants, Marcos added: “I am sorry that the people suffered because of it but it had to be done. Otherwise, we would do things the same way…the things that have been discovered, that have been done for the last three decades will just continue. So we have to go through that pain…go through that difficulty…the anguish that the country is going through now.”

“But we are Filipinos. We may be bleeding now but we will also heal very, very quickly,” he said.

The “dangerous surgery” and the “anguish” he was speaking about, could only refer to the flood control corruption scandal — the same one that’s engulfed many different parts and personalities in government, including Marcos’ allies and relatives.

It’s a mess that’s led to upheavals in congressional leadership, the start and end of congressional investigations, the creation of an ad hoc body tasked to review a decade’s worth of infrastructure projects, and the issuance of arrest warrants against a former lawmaker who was once a close ally of Marcos himself.

At times, it seemed a mess that spun out of control as witnesses came forward to accuse legislators from across the political divide of getting kickbacks from these projects. Zaldy Co, the former lawmaker who once chaired half of the legislative’s budgeting process, has accused Marcos, his cousin former House speaker Ferdinand Martin Romualdez, and presidential son House Majority Leader Ferdinand Alexander “Sandro” Marcos of putting insertions in the budget.

Malacañang, in turn, has accused Co of destabilization. He’s still out of the country, and maybe only the ghosts of Malacañang can, with certainty, know if and when those warrants against him will be enforced — although Marcos told media on December 3 that they do have a plan.

“And between myself and those who are helping me and advising me, I think we know how. It’s not as if we are lost and we do not know what we are going to do. We know what we are going to do. We will continue this campaign…we will continue this campaign on this abuse and entitlement that has shocked everyone, myself included,” said Marcos, the son and namesake of a dictator who ruled over the Philippines for over two decades.

Earlier the same day, former public works chief Rogelio “Babes” Singson was confirmed to have resigned from the Independent Commission for Infrastructure, an ad hoc body that Marcos created to probe infrastructure projects since the past decade.

Said Marcos, who was once in exile after his father’s ouster: “So I hope that once we go through this, that we will be able to look back on this and say, okay…at worth it ‘yung parusa, pagdusa na pinagdaanan natin (all the torture and suffering was worth it)…. That is what we are hoping for.”

There was no explicit mention of Co, or his embattled cousin that night. But Marcos did train his guns at another monster: fake news and a polluted information ecosystem.

“We need to explain and make people understand,” he said.

“Our big problem — and this one, I need your help and I don’t know how to approach it — but we need to work together on this fake news. Kayo, you’re journalists, you develop your contacts…you learn many things and so kung ano sinusulat ninyo (whatever you write), comes from that wisdom that you have already acquired…but now, suddenly — your writings, your opinions are equal in importance and credibility to these crazy conspiracy theories that have no basis in fact,” he said, without going into specifics.

“In the beginning we thought it was funny, it was entertaining, but now it’s become damaging. And that is something that we have to be concerned about. And that’s why I’m saying we need your help. Government needs the help of all the media,” he added.

Ironically, Marcos, as presidential candidate in 2022, was among the main beneficiaries of election-related disinformation, according to a 2022 Vera Files report. (Also READ: Tracking the Marcos disinformation and propaganda machinery) – Rappler.com