06/09/2025
๐๐ข๐๐จ๐ ๐ก | ๐๐ถ๐น๐น๐ถ๐ผ๐ป๐ ๐ฆ๐ฝ๐ฒ๐ป๐, ๐ก๐ผ๐๐ต๐ถ๐ป๐ด ๐๐๐ถ๐น๐: ๐ง๐ต๐ฒ ๐๐ป๐ฎ๐๐ผ๐บ๐ ๐ผ๐ณ ๐๐น๐ผ๐ผ๐ฑ ๐๐ผ๐ฟ๐ฟ๐๐ฝ๐๐ถ๐ผ๐ป
Every rainy season, Filipinos brace for raging floods and the diseases that follow. In August 2025, the Department of Health renewed its leptospirosis warning after floods triggered a surge in cases. Between June 8 and August 7, 2025, a total of 2,396 cases were reported nationwide. Hospitals created "fast lanes" for patients. Emergency rooms across Metro Manila overflowed with victims of contaminated floodwaters. But behind every flood-related illness lies a repulsive sickness: corruption, not bacteria.
President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.'s recent revelation about the flood control budget was damning. Since 2022, only 15 contractors have secured 20 percent of the โฑ545 billion budget, totaling โฑ109 billion. Even more alarming, five of these firms secured projects in almost every region, raising concerns about favoritism and monopoly. Worse, some projects remain unfinished, are substandard, or nonexistent. For example, a structure in Calumpit, Bulacan, was marked as "completed" in 2023, but the President himself found it to be incomplete and substandard. This is not just inefficiency. This is betrayal.
Every peso funneled into ghost projects is stolen from communities that flood each year, from families who lose their homes, from workers trapped indoors and unable to earn, and from patients who fall ill with leptospirosis and dengue. As billions vanish into contractors' pockets, other sectors beg for crumbs. The cruel irony remains: the money exists, but it is stolen.
President Marcos Jr. has signaled he will file economic sabotage cases against erring contractors. That is a necessary first step, but not enough. For accountability to matter, we must view corruption as a complex phenomenon. Contractors did not thrive alone. They had government counterparts who signed off, tolerated, or colluded in these projects. Shame is not punishment. A slap on the wrist is not justice. The guilty must be fined, blacklisted, prosecuted, and jailed. This applies to both contractors and officials. Anything less is complicity.
Accountability must go hand in hand with systemic reform. Otherwise, this scandal will become another political spectacle: the same outrage, the same hearings, the same floods swallowing streets each year. Reform should rest on three pillars: transparency, procurement reform, and reconsidering flood control. The Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) should launch an open digital platform detailing all flood control projects, budgets, contractors, and progressโverified by independent inspectors. The public deserves to know where their money goes. Citizens should have access to ways to engage with this platform, enabling them to monitor progress, report discrepancies, and voice their concerns. Procurement should be broadened and closely monitored to ensure effective management. Monopolies must be curbed and violators blacklisted immediately. True flood resilience requires comprehensive urban planning, climate adaptation, and stronger environmental safeguards.
As Senator Marcoleta recounted during a Senate Blue Ribbon Committee hearing, ordinary Filipinos are furious. "Kami po, pawis at dugo namin ang puhunan dito. Pinipilit naming magbayad ng buwis pero ganito po ba ang kinapupuntahan ng aming buwis na binibigay? Pwede po bang huwag na lang muna kaming magbayad?" It is a cry of exhaustion, frustration, and betrayal. How can we assure taxpayers that their sacrifices matter when their money funds ghost projects instead of flood protection? We cannotโunless the government proves that every peso is accounted for, every project is real, and every culprit is punished.
Floodwaters will keep rising. Leptospirosis will keep spreading. But the deeper flood, the one that truly drowns us, is the flood of corruption. The Filipino people are not demanding miracles. They are demanding results. At the end of the day, it is not just money being stolen; it is lives, health, and dignity that are being compromised.
The call is clear: Accountability. Reform. Now.
Editor's Note: The opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official stance, views, or policies of The Island Fisher or Cebu Technological University - San Francisco Campus.
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Written by: Leah Angela Ortadilla
Cartoon by: Christian Ray C. Martinez
