There are nearly a billion pesos worth of duplicate flood control projects in the 2025 national budget, House of Representatives and ACT Teachers Representative Antonio Tinio revealed.
Tinio said the General Appropriations Act (GAA) for the current year is full of massive irregularities and reeks of political patronage instead of scientific planning to mitigate flooding throughout the country.
During the budget briefing for the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) at the House of Representatives (HOR) last Friday, Tinio presented examples of manipulation, such as a flood control proposal in Barangay Mangorokoro, Ajuy, Iloilo that appears three times in the 2025 GAA.
The said project had P79 million under the Flood Management Program and two separate P150 million entries under Sustainable Infrastructure Projects Alleviating Gaps (SIPAG), totaling P379 million.
“Our initial review found similar double entries totaling P939 million – almost P1 billion. This is not a trivial matter,” Tinio stated during the hearing.
The progressive lawmaker also highlighted how the Flood Management Program budget ballooned from P226 billion in the National Expenditure Program to P240 billion in the final GAA—an increase of P13.89 billion through congressional insertions.
“On flood management, (it was originally) 106 pages. But in the GAA, (it became) 145 pages. So that’s another way of looking at how many were the insertions,” Tinio added.
In a crucial exchange with DPWH Secretary Dizon, Tinio asked whether flood control allocations are based on scientific studies or river basin master plans.
The secretary candidly admitted: “Tingin ko po ang diretsyong sagot ay hindi.” (I think the direct answer is no.)
“So, what happens is piecemeal projects: 150 meters here, 300 meters there, not necessarily connected, making them ineffective in flood management,” Tinio said.
Tinio said that Congress’ unwritten rule that each district must be given a share of the public works budget contributed to patronage politics. “Each district must have its share,” he pointed out.
“This exposes the rotten system of pork barrel politics that wastes billions of pesos while communities continue to suffer from floods. We demand genuine flood management based on science, not political accommodation,” Tinio said.
Cracks in the ‘thieving alliance’
Meanwhile, good governance think-tank Center for People Empowerment in Governance (CenPEG) said that the ongoing word war between Malacañang and the HOR is nothing more than a clash on who exercises more control over public funds.
CenPEG said executive secretary Lucas Bersamin’s accusation that corruption stems solely from Congress is a clear attempt by the Ferdinand Marcos Jr. administration to wash its hands of systemic corruption while evading accountability for the pork barrel system, unprogrammed appropriations, and massive contractor-driven projects under its watch.
In a scathing rebuke of the HOR, Bersamin said the Marcos Jr. Cabinet “strongly objects to the recent spins from certain members of the (HOR) who are thereby attempting to shift the blame for their own corruption and failures onto the Executive branch.”
“The members of the Cabinet would not tolerate any attack on the integrity and reputation of the executive branch and any effort to hold the budget process hostage by political theatrics,” he added.
“Clean your House first!” Bersamin concluded in the most public spat between the executive branch and the HOR led by cousins Marcos Jr. and Speaker Ferdinand Martin Romualdez respectively.
CenPEG however said that both branches are to blame for the mess, citing media investigations showing how favored contractors such as the Dizcaya companies have amassed billions from flood control projects, deals that could not have prospered without Palace approval.
To recall, the Makabayan bloc of progressive partylists have always been frustrated during plenary debates of the national budget by the HOR leadership through railroading tactics.
The Center said that Pres. Marcos remains principally accountable for the worsening corruption in government, failing to check and verify the line item budget submitted to the various agencies and the Department of Budget and Management despite having more than enough intelligence and confidential use at his disposal.
“The people’s growing outrage over the decay of the political system must be transformed into a call not only for transparency in the budget process, but for systemic change to dismantle graft and corruption — the essence of bureaucrat capitalism itself,” CenPEG said in a statement over the weekend.
“The Senate’s Blue Ribbon probe and the House Infrastructure Committee hearing on flood control corruption should likewise be closely watched for revelations implicating top officials and their contractor allies,” it added.
People power vs corruption
On Sunday, hundreds of anti-corruption campaigners held a massive Run Against Corruption event at the University of the Philippines campus in Quezon City while Mayor Benjamin Magalong joined activists in a protest rally in Baguio City.
The events came after presidential spokesperson Claire Castro said that Pres. Marcos does not approve of the actions taken by protesters in Pasig and HOR last week, calling them “disturbances.”
Protesters pelted the headquarters of St. Gerrard Construction and the gates of the HOR with mud and paint to show disgust at the corruption in government.
Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (BAYAN) however said Malacañang’s concern for the comfort of the powerful than for the welfare of the people as well as the President’s appeal for calm is “self-serving.”
“Such protest actions are not mere disturbances. They are the people’s way of warning corrupt officials and contractors to stop stealing public funds,” BAYAN said.
“To downplay or dismiss the people’s outrage is to side with plunderers and perpetuate impunity. It is hypocritical of Malacañang to engage in protest-control and dictate how people should express their outrage,” it added.
BAYAN said the protests are a sharp reminder to the Marcos government that it has the responsibility to seriously investigate the anomalies in the flood control projects and ensure that those involved – whether contractors, politicians, or high government officials – are held to account.”
The group called on the Filipino people to continue expressing their sentiments and unleashing people power against corrupt contractors, politicians, and government officials.
“Let us persist in exercising our democratic rights and civil liberties until genuine accountability and justice are served,” BAYAN said. # (Raymund B. Villanueva)
