Tale of two flooded cities – of Tiangco, Teodoro

Navotas families wade to and from home everyday. That’s despite billions of pesos in flood controls their city gets each year.

Malacañang proposed for Navotas infrastructure P1.38 billion in 2023, P1.33 billion in 2024 and P930 million in 2025. Congress increased those to P2.047 billion, P1.95 billion and P2.3 billion. Total: P6.3 billion.

Navotas folk may admire their Rep. Toby Tiangco’s prowess with congressional insertions. But Tiangco derides colleagues who bloat their own infra funds via cuts from education, health, housing and defense.

Of Navotas’ recent P6.3-billion infra funds, nearly 70 percent went to flood works. Not all are reported in Sumbong sa Pangulo. The portal itemizes only finished projects.

Of 86 Navotas flood projects in the budget laws of 2023, 2024, 2025, only 34 are listed there. The rest presumably are incomplete or inexistent. Tiangco brags closeness to President Bongbong Marcos.

That the transparency portal lacks data is bad enough. The few disclosures raise alarms. A handful of firms dominate the contracts:

• Topnotch Catalyst Builders, one of 15 contractors that BBM flagged for cornering flood allocations nationwide, stars in Navotas. With One Frame Construction, it booked P120 million worth of projects. St. Timothy Construction of Curlee and Sarah Discaya, also among the blacklisted 15, won P98.4 million.

• 721 Builders Corp. received P95 million. Earthwork Builders got P87.9 million.

Costs also stand out. Flood works elsewhere range from P14 million to P50 million. In Navotas single contracts soared much higher.

Construction of Floodgates 3 and 4 along the coastal dike hit P340 million. A nearby pumping station cost P260 million. Rehab of the North Navotas Pumping Station and Navigation Gate was P299.7 million.

True, Navotas, sitting on the edge of Manila Bay, needs extraordinary works. The city is vulnerable to high tides, monsoon rains and tidal surges, PAGASA confirms. Pumps and gates are essential.

The issue is not the need, but the process. When projects multiply beyond Executive plans, when disclosure is partial and when a few contractors dominate, oversight must be more rigorous.

BBM revealed that over 6,000 flood entries worth P350 billion had vague descriptions. Also, that 15 firms cornered P100 billion, or 20 percent of all flood works nationwide.

The Senate, House of Reps and Independent Commission on Infrastructure are investigating 10 years of fake and faulty public works. Navotas can be a case study.

Technical expertise is foremost. Large sums for flood works do not guarantee performance. Structural design must anchor on hydrology, hydraulics, current flow data and maintenance standards. If not, dikes can fail under the first storm.

An audit that goes beyond ledgers should follow. Each Navotas contract should be tied to a geotagged site, a completion date and inspection photos.

Pumping stations should be rated on speed of draining floodwaters and frequency of clogging. Floodgates should be tested against actual tides. Residents deserve proof that the billions spent will protect them. Flood works should hold back water, not excuses.

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The sworn Senate testimony of Curlee and Sarah Discaya shattered the Mister Clean image of Marikina Rep. Marcy Teodoro.

During his nine years as mayor, Marikina folk were led to believe Teodoro was a humble, bookish public servant. Supposedly he lessened the city’s frequent flooding through good engineering.

Then came the Discayas’ exposé. They supposedly bagged P200 million in flood works in Teodoro’s first district in 2022-2025. That added to their multibillion-peso take from fake and faulty flood control projects.

The Discayas are among President Bongbong Marcos’ 15 blacklisted contractors.

Curlee Discaya swore that Teodoro demanded 18-percent cut from project cost. He claimed to not know what became of the P35 million he disbursed. All he knew was that it was collected in Teodoro’s behalf by Bell Construction.

Crying foul, Teodoro disavowed any Discaya project in his district. He attributed the testimony to a demolition job. He said it came right after he exposed Public Works items in Malacañang’s 2026 budget proposal that were already completed in previous years.

Bell Construction lists Elmer Thomas de Leon as general manager. He reputedly owns mansions, racing stables and US real estate.

Political foes accuse Teodoro’s wife Maan, now mayor, of handpicking de Leon’s son, Loel de Leon, as temporary city councilor. The latter is also a contractor.

That was when the ombudsman suspended Teodoro, the vice mayor, the city treasurer, accountant, assistant budget officer, secretary and 13 councilors for alleged misuse of P130-million PhilHealth money.

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