The Economy and Development (ED) Council Investment Coordination Committee – Cabinet Committee (ICC-CC), co-chaired by Finance Secretary Ralph Recto, has tightened its approval process for flood control projects.
The agency approved a resolution to combine flood control and management projects within single river basins.
“We will ensure that the money our countrymen have worked hard for is truly put to good use,” Recto said in a statement.
“We will not let the people’s money be wasted on failed or ill-considered projects,” he said.
“It is time to show that the government is serious about implementation and serious about accountability,” Recto said.
Approved by the ICC-CC on Aug. 12, 2025, the resolution was recommended by the Infrastructure Development Committee (InfraCom) Sub-Committee on Water Resources (SCWR) to enable a comprehensive review of flood management projects and to ensure they are shovel-ready before implementation.
The current ICC guidelines only require evaluation for projects exceeding a P2.5-billion threshold. This meant that most existing flood control projects, which were treated individually, did not undergo the ICC evaluation process.
This resulted in fragmented projects that did not account for potential flooding impacts on adjacent communities within the same river basin, the council said.
By combining projects in a single river basin, more of them will be subject to ICC evaluation, particularly for technical, environmental, social and economic viability.
The move is expected to improve the quality and readiness of flood control projects and will enable a unified, cohesive strategy for more effective and sustainable flood control efforts, it said.
Under the resolution, the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) will be the lead agency responsible for submitting aggregated projects to the ICC.
Following approval by the ICC-CC and its endorsement to the InfraCom-CC, the resolution will be sent to the ED Council for consideration and a final decision.
