August 28, 2025 | 12:00am
Filipinos have had sufficient. Each downpour brings the identical heartbreaking scenes: college students trudging by way of floodwaters, risking sickness simply to get dwelling. Employees and commuters drenched and stranded for hours, determined to reunite with their households. Vehicles and bikes, many nonetheless below mortgage, submerged. Home equipment purchased with hard-earned cash, ruined.
That’s the reason when revelations surfaced concerning the nation’s flood management tasks, the general public outrage that ensued was not simply comprehensible—it was justified. This damaged system has allowed corruption and incompetence to thrive unchecked for years. It’s time to demand accountability. It’s time to finish the cycle.
Following his revelation on the focus of flood management contracts amongst a choose few companies, President Marcos mentioned his administration is eyeing submitting financial sabotage circumstances in opposition to contractors of ghost flood management tasks. This got here after area inspections of main flood management tasks tagged as “accomplished” in official data however turned out to be both unfinished, substandard or worse, non-existent.
The latest revelations are solely a concrete affirmation of what everyone knows has been happening: public funds meant to uplift communities and enhance lives are being diverted into the fingers of a privileged few.
Contractors who pocket public funds with out fulfilling their contracts shouldn’t solely be named and shamed – they have to be fined, blacklisted and prosecuted. Likewise, authorities officers who authorized, tolerated or failed to watch these tasks should even be held accountable and should face a heavier penalty.
Corruption is rarely a one-sided affair. Each contractor who pocketed public funds had a authorities counterpart who enabled it – whether or not by incompetence, negligence, or outright collusion.
What makes this scandal extra infuriating is the irony that billions have been funneled into non-existent flood management tasks whereas different important social companies and sectors make do with restricted budgets.
Senior Residents party-list Rep. Rodolfo “Ompong” Ordanes completely described it when he lamented difficulties in requesting funds for applications that can profit tens of millions of Filipino aged and but billions are simply pocketed by a choose few. Greater than misallocation, this reveals misplaced priorities and systemic failure.
Accountability is non-negotiable however whereas we demand a full investigation into the nation’s flood management mess, we have to be vigilant that this scandal turns into greater than only a mere witch hunt.
We should demand that the investigations on this don’t solely establish and punish the culprits but additionally pave the way in which for systemic reforms. Until we transcend witch hunts and really repair the damaged system, we might be having this similar dialog once more in just a few years – questioning why we’re nonetheless knee-deep in floodwater and the place our taxes went.
Addressing the issue needs to be rooted in three pillars: full transparency, procurement reform and rethinking flood management.
First is full transparency: the Division of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) should launch an open-access digital platform or web site the place each challenge is logged — full with contractor names, budgets, timelines and progress stories verified by unbiased third-party inspectors. This fashion, the general public can see the precise standing of those tasks, whether or not they’re actual or not.
Second, procurement reform. With solely a handful of contractors cornering practically P100 billion in flood management tasks, there’s clearly an issue with the bidding system. Procurement have to be broadened and strengthened to permit extra credible contractors to take part and to ban doubtful, substandard ones from successful contracts.
Your complete course of needs to be carried out in full view of stakeholder representatives, particularly these from communities straight affected by these tasks. Strict enforcement of blacklisting guidelines for violators should even be non-negotiable. Something much less is a disservice to the general public.
Final is a name to rethink flood management. We can not simply carry on constructing dikes or clearing out drainage. Flood management have to be built-in with city planning and needs to be holistically developed with not simply engineering requirements in thoughts, but additionally long-term viability, local weather resilience and environmental sustainability.
President Marcos was proper to name out the mess, however his administration should guarantee this doesn’t finish as one other political spectacle.
Contractors who pocketed public funds have to be prosecuted to the complete extent of the regulation. However equally, techniques have to be reformed to make sure that such abuses don’t occur once more. Accountability with out reform is hole. Reform with out accountability is meaningless.
On the finish of the day, Filipinos should not demanding miracles. They’re demanding outcomes – and rightly so, as a result of it’s the individuals’s cash they’re plundering. We should demand transparency, accountability and integrity in each peso spent and each challenge constructed.
Filipinos deserve techniques that serve and never exploit them. Fixing what’s damaged will profit not simply immediately’s technology, however each Filipino who desires of a future the place public service actually means serving the general public.
