The recent suspension of a district engineer in Baguio City over the alleged tampering and alteration of public documents related to projects there of the Department of Public Works and Highways is at once welcome, and a cause for concern.

The district engineer’s suspension is positive, of course. A crime has potentially been stopped.

But whether such destruction of evidence has not happened in other DPWH, how could we be sure?

The order for all DPWH central, regional and district offices to submit documents to the Independent Commission for Infrastructure may not be enough in the face of public clamor for investigation and transparency.

All agencies of government — not just DPWH and including the ICI — should publish documents, contracts and expenditure receipts charged against public funds.

Add to these: The full records of the House appropriations committee, the Senate finance committee, and bicameral committee, and record of every amendment or insertion proposed by lawmakers.

The government should also furnish duplicate and certified copies of all these documents, contracts and evidence to the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines and the University of the Philippines for storage, safekeeping, digitalization, and greater public access.

This will make the public a more informed participant in the investigations, and enable citizens who are lawyers, accountants, or anti-corruption advocates to study the documents.

Elsewhere, Faustino “Bojie” Dy III , the new Speaker of the House, has said he is “willing” to disclose his Statement of Assets, Liabilities and Net-worth.

Speaker Dy could do more — or should. He should lead all congressmen to unconditionally and immediately release their SALNs. Further, he could take the extra step of asking Senate President Tito Sotto to co-author with him a joint resolution for the release of SALNs of all congressmen and senators.

Further, both Speaker Dy and Senate President Sotto can speak with President Marcos regarding an executive order on the release of SALNs of all officials under the Executive Branch.

While they are at it, why stop at the release of SALNs? Public officials should start signing bank secrecy waivers.

Another step the government could take is to prevent any other accused official from possibly fleeing from investigation and prosecution.

The President, House Speaker and Senate President should stop the issuance of travel authority to any public official. All public officials should be ordered to go back home and stay in the country, so they are present when they are summoned by the ICI, investigators, prosecutors or judges.

That the President himself cancelled his trip to the United Nations General Assembly is proof that foreign travels may be unnecessary. Except for diplomats and foreign service officers, public officials should be prohibited from leaving the country, whether in official capacity or privately, for the rest of the year.

With more and more lawmakers and high government officials being tagged as allegedly having been involved in the flood control ghost projects or are related to or co-owned at a prior time contracting companies, what goodwill measure could they do?

An undersecretary of the Department of Education this week took a leave as soon as his name was mentioned in the investigations. That is a good, welcome step. The DepEd won’t be dragged, and he could devote his entire time clearing his name or in confronting his accusers. Others lacking a sense of delicadeza just waited to be dismissed.

Would we see the other high officials and lawmakers take a leave or resign from office?

An architect’s group drew public scorn over its complaint regarding the use of the word “architect.” Instead of fighting well-established dictionary definitions, perhaps the group could urge members to come forward regarding corruption in government projects.

Ditto for organizations of civil engineers, accountants, contractors, subcontractors, suppliers, banks and other financial intermediaries. Their members may have important information about many acts of corruption in agencies of government.

Nothing is stopping other contractors from publishing their government contracts, and documents pertaining to payments they have received from government.

Banks should also be forthright with the public regarding powerful, big-time clients who are public officials or have contracts with government. They should help solve crimes. Plunder and corruption are crimes.

The successful Sept. 21 protests in Luneta, EDSA and other parts of the country demand leaders, structures, and institutions to be accountable, transparent, and cooperative. The public is not in the mood for more abuses of power, exceptions, evidence-tampering, cover-ups or escapes.