President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. vowed on Thursday that those behind bogus flood control projects will be arrested before Christmas, days after deadly back-to-back typhoons left swathes of the country underwater and nearly four months after he first exposed the scheme in his 2025 State of the Nation Address (SONA).
“Before Christmas, many of those named here, I think their cases will be concluded, their cases will be built, and they will be imprisoned. There will be no ‘Merry Christmas’ for them. Before Christmas, they will be jailed,” Mr. Marcos said in a press conference Thursday.
“And those people who are involved there – these shameless ones who steal the people’s money – your happy days are over. We will chase you down,” he added.
Scores of construction firm owners, government officials, and lawmakers have been accused of pocketing funds for substandard or so-called ghost infrastructure projects.
The Department of Finance has estimated the economy lost up to P118.5-billion from 2023 to 2025 due to corruption in flood control projects.
Criminal cases against most of the people implicated were nearly completed, Mr. Marcos told reporters.
Asked if his cousin—former House Speaker and Leyte Rep. Martin Romualdez—will also face charges, Marcos said “not as yet,” noting there was no evidence yet on the latter’s involvement in the flood control mess.
“If something else comes out, then he (Romualdez) might have to be answerable for something,” he said. “There are no exemptions in these probes.”
“We don’t file cases for optics. We file cases to put people in jail or to make people answer…There are many suggestions of who else we should file cases against. We’re fine with that. Provide us the evidence and we will file cases against them,” the President added.
Mr. Marcos also encouraged the public to continue reporting corruption through the “Sumbong sa Pangulo” online platform, which he described as a key source of information for the ongoing probes.
As for former lawmaker Zaldy Co, the President said the government will immediately cancel his passport once formal charges are filed against him over alleged “ghost” flood control projects.
“Since no case has been filed yet, the request for the cancellation of his passport cannot yet be made. However, when the time comes, we will immediately cancel his passport,” he said.
“You have to give grounds for the cancellation of the passport, and those grounds will be based on the cases that will be filed against him,” Mr. Marcos added.
Asked whether Co could serve as a state witness in the corruption probe, the President said the option “is always there except for those who are the most guilty.”
Mr. Marcos, however, declined to answer whether he thinks Co is most guilty.
“If I answer that, people might say I have pre-judged…Let the courts do their work, let the judges do the work,” he said.
Meanwhile, Deputy Speaker Paolo Ortega V of La Union welcomed the President’s clear reminder that all investigations must be anchored on evidence and not speculation.
“The President reminded everyone of a basic principle: cases must be filed on evidence, not on noise. That standard applies to all who are being mentioned in this issue. It is a timely reminder at a moment when accusations are circulating without documents or testimony to support them,” Ortega said.
In the case of Romualdez, Ortega noted the records of the Independent Commission for Infrastructure consistently showed no paper trail, no transaction, and no testimony linking the former Speaker to any questionable project.
“Former Speaker Romualdez has already faced the ICI under oath. He submitted documents, answered every question, and made himself fully accountable. The agencies handling the review have full access to the records, and none point to his involvement,” Ortega said.
He said the only claim ever raised against Romualdez came from what he described as a tainted testimony of Orly Guteza, whose affidavit was confirmed to contain a falsified signature of a lawyer by a Manila court.
Ortega said Guteza did not return to the Department of Justice to validate his allegations, despite being required to do so.
House Committee on Human Rights chairman and Manila Rep. Bienvenido Abante Jr. said the President upheld how the justice system works.
“Up to now, there is no document, no signature, no transaction, and no testimony directly pointing to former Speaker Romualdez. The ICI has access to all implementing agencies. If anything existed, it would have surfaced by now,” Abante said.
“Speculation is easy. Accountability requires facts. The President’s message was simple and correct: bring the evidence, and the government will act. Without it, there is no case,” he added.
Editor’s Note: This is an updated article. Originally posted with the headline: “’No Merry Christmas’ for ghost infra conspirators—PBBM”
