05/09/2025
๐ ๐๐ก๐จ๐ฌ๐ญ ๐๐ข๐๐ญ๐ฌ ๐๐ง๐ ๐
๐ฅ๐จ๐จ๐๐๐ ๐๐ญ๐ซ๐๐๐ญ๐ฌ: ๐๐ก๐๐ซ๐ ๐๐จ ๐๐ฎ๐ซ ๐๐ข๐ฅ๐ฅ๐ข๐จ๐ง๐ฌ ๐๐จ?
by: Etephany P. Carbonilla
It ainโt the holidays yet, but taxpayers are already โgiftingโ certain contractors and corrupt officials with luxury cars, mansions, and vacations. Not out of generosity, but out of compulsionโour hard-earned money funneled through questionable flood control projects. It ainโt Halloween yet, but ghost projects are haunting us, leaving behind flooded streets, unfinished canals, and a public drowning in frustration.
According to the Department of Finance (DOF), the Philippines lost between โฑ42.3 billion to โฑ118.5 billion in just two years due to irregularities in flood control projects. That amount, if used properly, could have boosted the economy by 6% or generated 266,000 jobs. Instead, it seems to have boosted luxury dealerships.
Legislators like Sen. Panfilo โPingโ Lacson warn that the real crime isnโt just ghost projectsโitโs letting those behind them walk free. He has long called flood control a โfavorite playground of corruption,โ pointing to duplicated, copy-paste projects and the cozy monopoly of a few contractors cornering the lionโs share of the budget. Yet despite exposรฉs and Senate hearings, very few ever face consequences.
This disparity is reminiscent of a powerful scene in B**g Joon-hoโs Oscar-winning film Parasite. In it, a wealthy woman, safe in her car, praises the rain for making the air โso clean and fresh.โ The very same rain, however, drowns the home of a poor family, forcing them to wade through sewage and lose everything. What is seen as a blessing for the privileged becomes a disaster for the marginalized. The same is true in the Philippines: while corrupt officials enrich themselves from โflood controlโ funds, ordinary families are left to watch helplessly as their homes sink in the next storm.
Meanwhile, communities continue to suffer. In a country struck by an average of 20 typhoons a year, this kind of corruption is not only wastefulโitโs deadly. Every unfinished project means another neighborhood left vulnerable to rising waters.
Reforms like stricter project vetting, citizen monitoring, and digital transparency platforms have been proposed. But unless accountability is finally enforced and the guilty are held to account, ghost projects will keep turning into lavish โgiftsโ for the few, while leaving the many submerged in floodwaters and broken promises.
๐๐๐๐๐ฎ๐ฌ๐ ๐ญ๐ก๐ ๐ ๐ซ๐๐๐ญ๐๐ฌ๐ญ ๐๐ฅ๐จ๐จ๐ ๐ฐ๐ ๐๐๐๐ ๐ข๐ฌ ๐ง๐จ๐ญ ๐จ๐ ๐ฐ๐๐ญ๐๐ซโ๐๐ฎ๐ญ ๐จ๐ ๐๐จ๐ซ๐ซ๐ฎ๐ฉ๐ญ๐ข๐จ๐ง ๐ญ๐ก๐๐ญ ๐ซ๐๐๐ฎ๐ฌ๐๐ฌ ๐ญ๐จ ๐๐ซ๐ฒ ๐ฎ๐ฉ.
Layout Artist: Gayle Marie Borres
Caption: Etephany Carbonilla
