Conflict of interest

According to Sen. Ping Lacson, 67 solons served as their contractors for their projects in 2022. The solons were allegedly part of the 19th Congress, which was from July 25, 2022, to June 11, 2025. In other words, a conflict of interest exists. Solons receive a budget to fund projects for their constituents. Now, if those projects are to be constructed by a company that has ties in one way or another to the solon, then the solon has the power to control everything from the price to the disbursement of funds. He has the power to overprice a project and handle the disbursement along with the documentation so as not to arouse suspicions of graft and corruption.

Sen. Lacson is hitting the ground running. The 20th Congress has barely started, and he is now taking names. He is conducting his own investigations, specifically on anomalous flood control projects that seem to be the preferred method of defrauding the government. According to him, in the past 15 years, about ?2 trillion were allocated for flood control projects. And as we have seen last month, the floods are here to stay. What did those ?2 trillion fund?

Most of the projects involve dredging. This is where you excavate material from a waterway to improve flow and maintain a manageable water level. It is the removal of sediment and debris from the bottom of a waterway or body. If a river or creek is heavily silted, the volume of water it can hold decreases. This leads to floods as any excess water, such as that coming from a monsoon or typhoon, cannot be contained by the waterway or body. Soil erosion and the wanton disposal of garbage into waterways contribute to sedimentation. Here lies the rub.

How do you measure the amount of dredging done to a waterway? Is the depth of a river or creek measured before dredging, then measured again post-dredging? It is easy for a contractor to present a pile of silt and garbage by the riverside or bank of a lake and claim the job to be done. For all we know, the dredging was only done in one area and not the length of the waterway, depending on the contract. I can just imagine how many contractors made money on dredging projects.

President Bongbong Marcos Jr. has promised heads will roll among those who defrauded the government. I can only hope he follows through. Corruption is deeply-entrenched in politics and even in Filipino culture. For once, I would like to see a sitting president go after those involved in widespread corruption, no matter who is involved. And a good place to start would be flood control projects over the years, who sponsored those projects, where the projects are located, and the contractors who supposedly worked on them. All pertinent documents should be on record. If not, then that’s already smoke from a fire.