Ched Rick Gatchalian

Residents and motorists navigate the flooded Andrews Avenue corner Domestic Road in Pasay City on July 24, 2024. Gigie Cruz, ABS-CBN News 

 

Article (news)

'Dapat may managot': Amid flood control probe, groups urge gov't to replace ''system of corruption' with transparency, accountability

ABS-CBN News

<div><span class="fr-img-caption fr-fic fr-dib" style="width:960px"><span class="fr-img-wrap"><img src="https://od2-image-api.abs-cbn.com/prod/editorImage/175713648105448160c09850b01712314be46e1df758e703f45fe14e6903b3aa95293226e19e6.webp" style="width:960px" class="fr-fic fr-dib"/><span class="fr-inner" style="text-align:left">Residents and motorists navigate the flooded Andrews Avenue corner Domestic Road in Pasay City on July 24, 2024. <em>Gigie Cruz, ABS-CBN News   </em></span></span></span></div><p>MANILA — A joint civil society statement from community members of the church, science, business, academe, library, labor and typhoon survivors called for &quot;systematic reform&quot; to address the anomalous flood control infrastructures — which they said should range from ensuring accountability and improving transparency to implementing science-backed projects.</p><p>The groups want independent and enforcement agencies to go after erring contractors, Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) officials, and lawmakers who were accountable to the anomalous flood control projects.</p><p>&quot;We have a lot of accountability systems on paper, but these are not effective enough in curbing corruption,&quot; the statement read, adding that they seek to see actual &quot;big fish&quot; or &quot;masterminds&quot; caught this time.</p><p>&quot;We call on the President to convene an independent body to review the whole budget process: from preparation, legislation, execution, and accountability, from planning to disbursement, including the roles of all agencies involved,&quot; they said.</p><p>The sectoral groups had called on President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. to appoint a &quot;truly independent Ombudsman&quot; and lift the secrecy on Statements of Assets, Liabilities, and Net Worth (SALN).</p><p>Marcos recently ordered lifestyle checks on all government officials. Malacañang said the Executive Branch is ready for such review, the President himself included.</p><p>Asked if Marcos was willing to show his SALN, Palace Press Officer Claire Castro said<a class="fr-green fr-strong" href="https://www.abs-cbn.com/news/nation/2025/8/29/marcos-ready-for-lifestyle-check-including-saln-disclosure-1222"> yes, if necessary</a>.</p><p>The Office of the Vice President (OVP) meanwhile explained Vice President Sara Duterte&#x27;s SALN <a class="fr-green fr-strong" href="https://www.abs-cbn.com/news/nation/2025/8/29/ovp-request-for-sara-duterte-s-saln-must-go-through-proper-channels-1624">can be requested through proper channels.</a></p><p>Among the lawmakers facing allegations over questionable flood control projects is Ako Bicol party-list Rep. Zaldy Co, former chair of the House appropriations panel and founder of Sunwest Inc., a conglomerate that secured billions of pesos in government contracts for flood control infrastructure.</p><div><a class="fr-green fr-strong" href="https://www.abs-cbn.com/news/nation/2025/9/4/rep-zaldy-co-in-us-house-spox-1345">Rep. Zaldy Co in US: House spox</a> </div><p>&quot;We express our outrage at government officials, politicontractors, private sector parties–and their family and relatives — who unabashedly flaunt their lavish lifestyles as they steal our hard-earned taxpayer money,&quot; the groups said, stressing that the &quot;vicious cycle&quot; has to end to rebuild public&#x27;s trust.</p><p>&quot;We demand that this corrupt system be replaced with a system of transparency, accountability, and people’s participation that makes it harder to be bad and easier to be good,&quot; they added.</p><div><br/></div><div><strong>DPWH, COMELEC, AND COA&#x27;S PROBE</strong></div><p>The groups recommended the major restructuring of the Philippine Contractors Accreditation Board (PCAB) and for the DPWH to continue blacklisting not only the contractors involved in ghost projects — but even the &quot;ultimate beneficial&quot; owners of these companies and some small firms which are actually linked to these owners.</p><p>&quot;It is good that DPWH Secretary Vince Dizon&#x27;s direction for DPWH leadership to file <a class="fr-green fr-strong" href="https://www.abs-cbn.com/news/nation/2025/9/1/-clean-slate-from-top-to-bottom-vince-dizon-to-order-courtesy-resignations-of-dpwh-officials-1221">courtesy resignations </a>and engaging in a comprehensive personnel review. It is also good that Secretary Dizon is blacklisting some contractors for life and requesting watch orders with the Bureau of Immigration, but we need to blacklist and watch not just the contractors but their ULTIMATE BENEFICIAL OWNERS of these companies,&quot; they said.</p><p>They urged the Commission on Elections (COMELEC) to investigate politicians who received campaign distributions from contractors involved in the flood control fiasco.</p><p><a class="fr-green fr-strong" href="https://www.abs-cbn.com/news/nation/2025/9/5/five-reveals-from-the-flood-control-data-1848">Data from the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism (PCIJ)</a> showed that Senators Francis &quot;Chiz&quot; Escudero and Joel Villanueva are among those reported to have received donations from contractors.</p><p>As for the Commission on Audit (COA)&#x27;s fraud audit in Bulacan, the groups are encouraging the agency to expand the audit to provinces with &quot;high contractor concentration.&quot;</p><p>The formations also urged the Congress to pass what they call &quot;genuine&quot; Freedom of Information Law and a Beneficial Ownership Transparency Law which will cover &quot;not just public contractors but those who have public-private partnerships and joint ventures.&quot;</p><p>&quot;We call on the Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC) to intensify investigations into suspicious financial transactions linked to these contractors. Criminal charges must be filed against contractors and officials involved in ghost projects and procurement fraud,&quot; the statement added.</p><div><br/></div><div><strong>LET CIVIL SOCIETY JOIN BICAM</strong></div><p>The statement also includes criticisms against the Senate and the House of Representatives&#x27; &quot;insertions&quot; to the DPWH budget, which it said happens during the bicameral conference, adding that these are &quot;prone to abuse&quot; since they started to &quot;balloon&quot; since 2020.</p><p>The groups said the insertions soared even higher under the Marcos administration.</p><div><a class="fr-green fr-strong" href="https://www.abs-cbn.com/news/nation/2025/9/4/p96-m-ghost-flood-control-project-in-bulacan-a-bicam-insertion-lawmaker-reveals-1926">P96-M &#x27;ghost&#x27; flood control project in Bulacan a &#x27;bicam insertion&#x27;, lawmaker reveals</a></div><p>&quot;Congressional insertions to the DPWH budget reached a net of P540 billion from 2023 to 2025, or a record-high average of 22% of the NEP. Recent investigations have shown that ghost or half-ghost projects being last-minute congressional insertions. Flood control projects are no longer just lodged in the DPWH flood management program budget. Many flood control budgets and local programs were subsumed under the convergence and special support programs budget of the DPWH, with big movements starting 2022,&quot; the statement read.</p><p>The formations said the civil society groups should be part of budget proceedings in both chambers and the bicam conference — not only as &quot;token observers but actual resource persons.&quot;</p><p>Emphasizing that the resolutions of both chambers are supposedly insufficient to combat erring insertions, the groups want a budget transparency server — similar to results server of media firms every election — that will track online the budget movements from the creation of the National Expenditure Program (NAP) up to the final General Appropriations Act (GAA).</p><p>The <a class="fr-green fr-strong" href="https://budget-transparency-portal.senate.gov.ph/">Senate budget transparency portal</a> is already live online. </p><p>The website states that it seeks to help enforce transparency and accountability methods &quot;to ensure public access to information and allow public participation in the deliberations of the 2026 General Appropriations Act.&quot;</p><div><br/></div><div><strong>GENUINE TRANSPARENCY IN FLOOD CONTROL PROJECTS&#x27; HISTORY</strong></div><p>While the groups lauded the<a class="fr-green fr-strong" href="https://www.abs-cbn.com/news/nation/2025/8/14/-sumbong-sa-pangulo-website-receives-over-1-000-reports-on-flood-control-projects-1330"> Sumbong sa Pangulo website</a>, it said more has to be unveiled about the flood control projects in the past years.</p><p>&quot;In the website, only 9,855 projects worth P547 billion were tagged completed, compared to the total P1.2 trillion flood control projects budgeted over the same time period,&quot; the statement reads. &quot;We recommend that the President and DPWH publish the details of these other projects from 2018 to 2025.&quot;</p><p>The formations called on the DBM, DPWH, Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), and Marcos to make crucial documents accessible to the public for heightened civil participation.</p><p>&quot;We recommend that the DPWH and SEC make these documents free and available to the public: the program of works, the bill of quantities, the detailed unit price analysis, the audited financial statements, the general information sheets, the articles of incorporation, which are all expensive and difficult to acquire, but are critical to  understanding the ultimate beneficial owners of winning contractors, including their financial, technical, and legal eligibilities,&quot; they said.</p><p>&quot;These proposals are technically feasible because there is already a system of unique identifiers in the budget, such as the Unified Account Code Structure (UACS) and Program Expenditure Classification (PREXC). In this light we call on DBM to prioritize and fast-track the Integrated Financial Management Information System (IFMIS),&quot; they added.</p><div><br/></div><div><strong>SCIENCE-BASED PROJECTS, INITIATIVES</strong></div><p><strong></strong>The civil society groups said the Philippine government must deviate from cement-based flood solutions and focus on nature-based flood management like watershed restoration, reforestation, and different sustainable measures.</p><p>They are recommending to the DPWH and DBM to convene a multi-sectoral committee that would study the country&#x27;s on-going flood control projects.</p><p>&quot;The committee must review existing studies of the country’s 18 major river basins, and ensure that projects follow the 5Rs: the right projects, at the right cost, with the right quality, implemented by the right people, delivered right on time,&quot; they said, adding that 2026 proposals must be resubmitted based on proper science.</p><p>The group said they have a &quot;little confidence&quot; that DPWH&#x27;s plans are based on science since their projects are supposedly misallocated to areas with little to no flood risk based on NOAH maps and they did not coordinate with local government units.</p><p>&quot;We recommend that this independent multi-sectoral review committee include members of unimpeachable competence and integrity: flood management scientists and hydrologists, civil society organizations, faith-based groups, local government practitioners, and community groups and people’s organizations most affected by flood risks and climate crisis,&quot; they explained.</p><p><strong></strong>&quot;We call on the President to veto projects that do not adhere to proper science to send a strong and credible message to Congress,&quot; the statement added.</p><div><br/></div><div><strong>RELATED VIDEOS:</strong></div><div><strong></strong></div><div><span class="fr-video fr-deletable fr-fvc fr-dvb fr-draggable" contenteditable="false" draggable="true"><iframe width="640" height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/qc_9z-cmTF4?&amp;wmode=opaque&amp;rel=0" frameBorder="0" allowfullscreen="" class="fr-draggable"></iframe></span><span class="fr-video fr-deletable fr-fvc fr-dvb fr-draggable" contenteditable="false" draggable="true"><iframe width="640" height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/B5vqLctUbuM?&amp;wmode=opaque&amp;rel=0" frameBorder="0" allowfullscreen="" class="fr-draggable"></iframe></span><span class="fr-video fr-deletable fr-fvc fr-dvb fr-draggable" contenteditable="false" draggable="true"><iframe width="640" height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/EYRdBI65M-0?&amp;wmode=opaque&amp;rel=0" frameBorder="0" allowfullscreen="" class="fr-draggable"></iframe></span><br/></div>

<p>Civil society groups from the church, academe, science, business, labor, libraries, and typhoon survivors called for a "systematic reform" to address anomalous flood control projects — from ensuring accountability and improving transparency to implementing science-backed measures.</p>

Civil society groups from the church, academe, science, business, labor, libraries, and typhoon survivors called for a "systematic reform" to address anomalous flood control projects — from ensuring accountability and improving transparency to implementing science-backed measures.

'Dapat may managot': Amid flood control probe, groups urge gov't to replace 'system of corruption' with transparency, accountability

News

Entertainment

Lifestyle

Sports

Metro.Style

More

Traffic

Manila

Horoscope

Nation

'Dapat may managot': Amid flood control probe, groups urge gov't to replace 'system of corruption' with transparency, accountability

Ched Rick Gatchalian,

ABS-CBN News

Published Sep 06, 2025 01:42 PM PHT

|

Updated Sep 06, 2025 02:34 PM PHT

Read More:

Flood control projects

Civil society groups

DPWH

Department of Public Works and Highways

Commission on Elections

Commission on Audit

Department of Budget and Management

Ferdinand Marcos Jr.

House of Representatives

Senate

ABS-CBN is the leading media and entertainment company in the Philippines, offering quality content across TV, radio, digital, and film. Committed to public service and promoting Filipino values, ABS-CBN continues to inspire and connect audiences worldwide.

Corporate

Investors

Governance

International Distribution

Corporate

Governance

Investors

International Distribution

NPC Seal of Registration

Privacy Policy

AI Policy

Terms of Service

Advertise with Us

© 2025 ABS-CBN Corporation. All Rights Reserved.

NPC Seal of Registration

Privacy Policy

Terms of Service

AI Policy

Advertise with Us

© 2025 ABS-CBN Corporation. All Rights Reserved.

NPC Seal of Registration

Privacy Policy

Terms of Service

AI Policy

Advertise with Us

© 2025 ABS-CBN Corporation. All Rights Reserved.