No more FLR – For Later Release

There’s an unmistakable flurry of activity on flood control projects that resumed in Metro Manila and other parts of the country. As he enters his last two years in office, President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. (PBBM) has been all over the place checking on flood control projects which were strikingly being put back on track.

During a media interview during his visit to Cebu last June 22, Marcos gave public assurance that next year’s national budget would contain funding for flood control projects to mitigate the impact of weather disturbances. Just last Friday, the President and the Cabinet approved the P7.2-trillion national budget for 2027.

“…And we will ensure that it (flood control projects) will not be touched when it undergoes the budget process,” Marcos vowed, following inspection of the rehabilitation of the Mananga River in Talisay City. Also last Friday, the President, accompanied by Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) acting Secretary Vivencio Dizon, inspected the rehabilitated Araneta flood control project in Quezon City.

“Together with the help of the local governments,” the President believes the “ghost” of the past flood control projects would no longer haunt him.

It’s almost a year since PBBM declared “Mahiya naman kayo” in his State of the Nation Address (SONA) before members of the 20th Congress. Without identifying who, a stern-faced PBBM took a swipe at those behind the alleged “ghost” flood control projects that went into the Congress-approved budgets.

It was extreme displeasure on the part of PBBM, who committed in his previous year’s SONA as the primary focus of his administration to implement over 5,000 flood control projects nationwide as part of an infrastructure strategy and engineering intervention.

The presidential commitment was made during the third SONA on July 29, 2024.

A day after the SONA that year, the President convened a sectoral meeting at Malacañang Palace to address flood-mitigation measures and other preparations for the projected onset of another episode of La Niña, or a prolonged rainy period. Then DPWH secretary Manuel Bonoan presented the administration’s long-term plans to construct over 5,000 flood control projects across the country’s principal river basins to provide immediate protection for low-lying and flood-prone areas.

“We have completed more than 5,500-plus flood control progress from July 2022 to May 2024, while we have 5,000-plus more that are ongoing right now,” the late DPWH undersecretary Cathy Cabral said at the media briefing after the sectoral meeting.

A year later, PBBM could not report any accomplishment of these supposed 5,000 flood control projects.

Parallel investigations ensued. In congressional inquiries “in aid of legislation” launched in Congress last year, Bonoan and several other Cabinet members and government officials, including private contractors, were tagged in the alleged mis-spending of multibillion-peso worth of “ghost” and substandard flood control projects. While the initial investigations were being undertaken by the Senate Blue Ribbon committee, PBBM created his own Independent Commission for Infrastructure (ICI) on Sept. 11 last year.

The three-man ICI headed by retired justice Andres Reyes Jr. looked into the initial cases of the reported “ghost” flood control projects uncovered by the Senate Blue Ribbon committee. The ICI investigations sort of staved off the massive protest rallies dubbed as the “Trillion Pesos March,” in reference to the DPWH flood control scam. But barely six months after it was created, the ICI unceremoniously closed down its investigations in March this year.

The ICI exit report, with voluminous documents on the DPWH flood control scandal, were turned over to the Office of the Ombudsman. The other cases and complaints of money-laundering, tax evasion and other criminal acts related to the flood control scam are also being investigated by the Department of Justice (DOJ).

Based on the ICI final report and DOJ investigation, Ombudsman Jesus Crispin “Boying” Remulla approved the filing of malversation of public funds, graft and plunder cases against a number of accused personalities. Thus, immigration lookout bulletins and hold-departure orders were issued against respondents like Bonoan, ex-Speaker Martin Romualdez, Senators Chiz Escudero and Jinggoy Estrada, among others, to prevent their flight abroad.

Meanwhile, the Senate Blue Ribbon committee then chaired by Sen. Panfilo Lacson already issued its “partial report” early this year. But in the aftermath of the Senate leadership feud, the resumption of the committee’s inquiry remains suspended.

And the rest, as we say, is history. Bonoan was forced to resign last year along with other government officials implicated in the flood control scandal. Bonoan, and dismissed DPWH district engineers were subsequently charged with graft and plunder cases now filed before the Sandiganbayan. Sadly for Cabral, her falling from a stiff cliff in Tuba, Benguet remains a mystery, even as police authorities called it an accidental death.

While Bonoan was allowed “hospital detention,” his other co-accused DPWH engineers are now cooling their heels in the Payatas jail in Quezon City, including Sen. Estrada and ex-sen. Ramon “Bong” Revilla Jr. Resigned Ako Bicol Party List Rep. Zaldy Co remains at large somewhere in Europe. And contractor-couple Curlee and Sarah Discaya are detained separately in Bulacan provincial jail and in Cebu.

With government spending cut down, especially on flood control projects, the Philippine economy has been doubly slowed down early this year with the outbreak of the Middle East (ME) conflict in February.

In the draft 2027 budget bill, Marcos’ economic managers slashed growth targets and revenue projections amid the impact of the ME war as well as the lingering effects of the flood control scandal. So apparently, Malacañang has lifted the FLR, or “For Later Release,” in terms of the 2026 budget, especially for flood control projects.

A month before his penultimate SONA, it should be no wonder why PBBM appears so excited and reinvigorated as he restarts the government’s flood control program. Now that PBBM is in legacy mode, the resumption of these projects could at least mitigate, if not totally eliminate, severe flooding in Metro Manila and elsewhere in our country.

With these economic and environmental challenges ahead, there is no more FLR.