07/11/2025
๐๐ถ๐ด๐ต๐๐, ๐๐ฎ๐บ๐ฒ๐ฟ๐ฎ, ๐ฎ๐ป๐ฑโฆ๐๐ผ๐ฟ๐ฟ๐๐ฝ๐๐ถ๐ผ๐ป!
They staged a show, so convincing as what they aimed, but as the plot met its climax, the people realized how badly written the script wasโstill the show went on hoping their audience would divert their attention to something else other than their incapability.
In just one day, a single typhoon revealed what truly happened to over one trillion pesos in โpocketedโ flood control fundsโmoney supposedly meant to protect the 108 lives lost in Cebu alone. Several months have passed since the media exposed the anomalies, yet not one of the accused contractors or politicians has been put behind barsโwhile ordinary citizens remain imprisoned for petty crimes born of desperation in a country the privileged few have drained dry. And as the days pass, the government continues to โaddressโ the issue, letting these numbers grow.
The people have spoken, their outcry echoes from the rooftop of their flooded homes and broken bridges. It's time for the government to do what their positions are paid for, with an urgency equating to how swift they swindled public funds.
They might deny it, but time will always reveal the truth, and this time, itโs impossible to hide. Typhoon Kalmaegi (Bagyong Tino) made landfall on Tuesday, November 4, affecting mostly the northern and central parts of Cebu. Talisay City was among the areas issued by PAGASA with Tropical Cyclone Wind Signal No. 4. One of the aftermaths was the severe flooding along the Mananga River. According to CDN Digitalโs report, the flood control project set for Mananga River was considered Cebuโs most expensive when it comes to project cost which is set at โฑ1.9 billion. The project was awarded to QM Builders and Quirante Construction Corp, the companiesโ contractor is involved in numerous allegations and even listed by President Marcos among the top contractors who received the largest sums of government funds. What went wrong was not only the questionable cost for a substandard construction, but also obviously the lack of oversight mechanisms, from planning to ex*****on. It might exist on paper and in theory if theyโd claim, but clearly not in practice nor in outcome.
Funds arenโt the issue, the government has long allocated a budget for these projects. However, the scale of misallocation in flood control funds significantly undermines the countryโs capacity to withstand disasters: estimates indicate that between 25% and 70% of the budget for flood-control projects under the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) was diverted or lost to corruption, translating into economic losses of โฑ42.3 billion to โฑ118.5 billion from 2023 to 2025 alone, as Finance Secretary, Ralph G. Recto, reported. This massive waste not only exposes the moral bankruptcy of the system but also proves that corruption in infrastructure does not merely steal money, it deprives the people of what their hard work deserves.
Worse still, transparency is not what it's supposed to mean if what they showed to the public are fabricated lies for the sake of having something to โshow.โ The Commission on Audit reported that DPWH failed to implement 131.57 billion peso projects back in 2023 leading to โunimplemented, deficient, and ghost projects.โ Yet, despite running off with such an amount of public funds since 2023, they seemed to get away with this, since they themselves audited these lies they wanted to keep from the people. The public deserves not just to know where their money goes, but to have a say in how it is spent. The absence of transparency from the past years until today has turned these projects into shadows of democracy, funded by the people, yet hidden from the people.
Nowadays, the phrase โcorruption is systemicโ has become a household truth, and what makes it thrive is how discrete and well-played they are. Back to the first months since flood control anomalies were made known, an interview by Jessica Soho with Mayor Benjamin Magalong revealed that flood control projects by DPWH are subjected to โbiddingsโ often rigged for favored contractors. Kickbacks, disguised as formalities, became a normal part of their transactions. Some contractors even create multiple and dummy companies just to grab more projects. In the end, they gained more than what should have been produced. They indulged more than what their stomachs could fill, leaving behind, not even a portion, but only crumbs of what should have fed the survival of the nation. Perhaps they never really mind, that as they subtract a projectโs material quality and quantity, they are also taking away the fundamental right of a person to live in a safe community.
Maybe the government has been looking from the wrong angle in solving this issue. Flooding is not new to the country, as what they claim, but its worsened severity is definitely not something to undermine. Flood control projects often rely on gray infrastructure, cemented riverbanks, ripraps, and floodwalls, and all these are from gravel scooped from mountains and trees cut from forests, worsening the very flooding they claim to prevent. In some cases, these rushed infrastructures alter natural drainage patterns and clog rivers, turning โsolutionsโ into catalysts of disaster. Theyโve debated about this issue long enough to understand that probably their accustomed practices are ineffective, detrimental and the root of it all.
It was all an elaborate ruse to convince the people that their lies share the same stand, and in return it drowned the country to death.
But there will come a day, where the audience, who worked twice as hard as them for a measly wage, will no longer feel satisfied with the show they put on. The people demand for change and itโs their constitutional right to be given one.
Article | Chloe Atillo
Cartoon | Wayne Padilla
