Fifteen years after Ondoy devastated Metro Manila and other parts of the country.
Senator Nancy Binay lamented that the situation has remained the same amid the huge P255 billion annual budget of the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) for its flood control projects.
In this regard, Binay and the other senators want to know what happened to the significant funds allocated to DPWH’s flood control programs.
She noted it is evident that their measures failed to produce the necessary improvements to safeguard our communities.
“It is deeply concerning that, in this age of advanced technology and substantial resources, our flood management systems remain painfully inadequate,” she said.
To avert massive floodings, Senator JV Ejercito cited the need for high impact or big ticket flood control projects-mega dikes and big water impounding infrastructures to gain results and not just dividing funds among themselves.
He did not specify which government agencies were involved in the supposed “division” of flood control projects funds siphoned away from the budget.
“It is hard to stomach that there is a P300 bullion budget for flood control each year and it seems that projects on flood control are not well planned and executed,” he said while obviously referring to the DPWH.
“That is why I have been pushing for a comprehensive master plan for infrastructure development,” he said.
If the DPWH “continues to make patchi-patchi flood control projects,” he pointed out that nothing will happen.
Aside from Binay and Ejercito, Senate President Francis Escudero, Bong Revilla, Alan Peter Cayetano and Grace Poe have also deplored DPWH for failure to put an end to the widespread floods despite its whopping budget.
Escudero wants a thorough investigation into the government’s flood control projects in light of the severe flooding despite the multibillion-peso allocation every year.
As Metro Manila has been under a state of calamity and the government has been working to address the damage wrought by Typhoon Carina, Escudero said we should also work to determine why—over a decade after Typhoon Ondoy—chronic, severe flooding continues to afflict the nation’s capital.
He emphasized that this repetitive cycle is a painful reality that cannot be accepted, particularly given the economic significance of Metro Manila and its role as the seat of government.
Escudero also questioned the effectiveness of flood control measures and the use of the substantial budget allocated for these projects.
Meanwhile, Revilla will conduct an inquiry to uncover the reasons behind the apparent inefficacy of the flood control projects despite the substantial funding.
He said the inquiry aims to assess the current state of the flood control systems and develop actionable solutions to ensure that the substantial investments in these projects yield the intended results—protecting communities from flooding and mitigating the impact of severe weather events.
During last year’s budget deliberations, Escudero noted that the P255 billion budget for flood control far exceeded the allocations for irrigation (P31 billion), the construction of new hospitals, and even the capital outlay budgets of the Department of Agriculture (P40.13 billion) and the Department of Health (P24.57 billion).
Approximately P255 billion was allocated for the DPWH’s flood control projects in the P5.768-trillion national budget for 2024, which Escudero previously criticized as disproportionately large compared to other critical sectors.
He also pointed out that the flood control budget surpasses the proposed budgets of entire departments, including the Department of National Defense (P232.2 billion) and the Department of Social Welfare and Development (P209.9 billion).
