DURING his press conference on Monday, President Ferdinand Marcos said that just 15 contractors out of 2,409 accredited bodies cornered P100 billion, or 18 percent, of the P545 billion allotted to flood control projects during the first three years of his administration.
Among the 15 contractors, five had projects in almost the entire country.
There was also a mismatch between the most flood-prone areas in the country and those with the highest number of flood-control projects.
Sixty-four percent of all projects under the present administration also lacked clear descriptions. Many suspiciously carried the same price tags even though they were in different locations.
In the President’s words, the initial findings he received after his call for accountability in flood-control projects, which he made during his State of the Nation Address just two weeks ago, were disturbing. This was the same speech during which he famously uttered: “Mahiya naman kayo (have some shame)!”
In Monday’s press conference, Mr. Marcos said they were not accusing anyone of anything – yet. He was cautious about naming names and making unsubstantiated allegations. Nonetheless, the frequency with which the companies’ names appeared in the initial summary stood out. Certainly, the list will give way to investigations and, hopefully, in the not-so-distant future, indictments and convictions where they are due.
These revelations sting because flooding has become a gut problem for many Filipinos, given the frequency and intensity of the weather disturbances here and the uneven capacity of local governments and communities to deal with disasters.
Lest we become carried away by what the findings point to, it is always good practice to ground ourselves on what we have and what we don’t. Indeed, this is only the tip of the iceberg. The irregularities being talked about only relate to projects in flood mitigation. There are numerous other infrastructure projects in the country. Flood control projects simply came to the surface because of the severe flooding incidents that occurred just days before the President delivered his SONA.
Second, these only represent projects beginning July 2022, when the Marcos administration took office. There are far too many tainted deals from years and administrations before. The connivance between contractors and government officials has been going on for generations.
We wonder: who among those who stood, clapped for, and cheered the President during the SONA were in fact there in the gallery without shame?
Mr. Marcos challenged investigative journalists to do their jobs in exposing these malevolent alliances, some sort of twisted “public-private partnership.” We do as much, but has it not always been the job of those in government to perform their duties with honesty and integrity, and to prevent the likelihood of corruption among their ranks, and to keep probing no matter who is involved and no matter how much it would hurt, politically?
It’s not a figure of speech: corruption kills. We look forward to the subsequent probes and hope that this will yield real consequences for the guilty on the one hand, and for those whose lives and livelihoods are at stake, on the other.
