IN PRESIDENT Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr.’s fourth State of the Nation Address before Congress last Monday (July 28), legislators and top national and local officials present greeted with a standing ovation his announcement to go hammer and tongs after those responsible for flood control projects that failed to prevent widespread flooding.
The president’s announcement must have been no less than a punch in the gut for the lawmakers who allotted funds for flood control projects and public works officials who implemented these projects.
The question now is whether we can expect honest-to-goodness flood control projects that really work, and not projects that serve only to fatten the bank accounts of the unscrupulous and the hopelessly corrupt.
Sen. Panfilo Lacson is therefore on the right track in calling for a review of the government’s flood control projects.
What he is saying is that almost half of almost P2 trillion allocated for flood control since 2011 may have been lost to corruption.
“Isn’t it absurd,” he pointed out, “that the rise of floodwaters in our country is directly proportional to the increase in the annual budget for the national government’s flood management program?
“For 15 years since 2011, the DPWH (Department of Public Works and Highways) is supposed to have spent almost 2 trillion pesos…We also cannot discount the fact that of the P2 trillion in allocations, P1 trillion may have ended up in some people’s pockets.”
Climate change has been tagged as a factor in the flooding problem but
he government really needs to improve the preparation, planning and implementation of flood control projects.
The senator explained that two trillion pesos means an average daily expense of almost P350 million for the past 15 years. If a midsize cutter suction dredger costs anywhere from $1.5 million to $8 million at $5 million or P285 million with the current peso-dollar exchange rate, the government can actually buy one dredging machine every day and use part of the excess of P65 million for operating expenses and maintenance.
The lawmaker has also bared inequitable and distorted allocation of funds for flood-control projects in some areas in the 2025 budget, such as a small barangay in Oriental Mindoro that received P1.9 billion and a small town in the same province that received P10 billion.
Sen. Bam Aquino has also indicated he wants to take part in a thorough probe of flood control projects to determine which ones have worked and those that have failed miserably, so this can be a double-barreled attack on a problem that has persisted for so long.
The Senate probe is timely and appropriate since we can expect more weather disturbances in the country amid global climate change that can exact a heavy toll on lives and properties in the years to come.
