P1.78-T flood control budget down the drain

Do you know how much the government has allocated for flood control over the last 10 years?

It’s a whopping P1.78 trillion, according to former public works secretary Rogelio Singson.

“The total over the last 10 years from 2016 is P1.78 trillion,” Singson told me by phone yesterday.

He, too, wonders where the money went and hopes those liable will be held to account.

Of the amount, President Marcos’ flood control budget is P1.2 trillion while the Duterte administration’s budget is P578 billion.

This tells us that Marcos’ budget to control flooding has doubled that of Rody Duterte’s time.

And yet, where did this money go? Reuters reported that the government had identified irregularities in P545 billion worth of flood control spending since 2022, the start of the Marcos administration.

Corruption and incompetence

If the money really did go to genuine flood control projects, they were not effective at all. Assuming that in the case of some projects, the funds weren’t corrupted, they were still a waste of taxpayers’ money because clearly, they weren’t effective.

This means that we are dealing not only with massive corruption in government but also with incompetence.

In fact, over the last 10 years, flooding in Metro Manila even worsened and as I write this, I have just waded through flooded roads.

Contrary to what President Marcos just said, the flood situation is far from improved.

Monday morning last week, at 3 a.m., I woke to the sound of a heavy downpour in our neighborhood, with winds howling like an angry beast. The sound of objects flying about and falling on roofs – perhaps ours and the neighboring homes – kept me awake.

It seemed like the sky was falling, and it was anxiety-inducing. In the middle of the mayhem, I had to step out of the house, in the darkness, rain and all, just to check if there was anything that needed immediate fixing – a damaged ceiling perhaps or flooded corners at home.

I managed to fall back to sleep somehow despite what seemed like an eternity and in the morning, I woke up to the news of more areas in Metro Manila covered in flood – and beyond.

That was last week.

It continues to rain nonstop and this, unfortunately, continues to magnify our problem with flooding.

And this is what has happened one year after President Marcos himself called out lawmakers and other officials in government for the shameless corruption of flood control projects.

Unfortunately for this nation of 115 million, this kind of thievery directly affects everyone, especially those living in flood-prone areas.

A fellow journalist who lives in Bulacan, during one of those nights last week when it was raining nonstop, had to wait it out in a cafe brave enough to open amid the downpour. She waited until the floods subsided and then took a padyak home. It was that or wade through the waters.

But it’s not only in Bulacan. In other areas in Metro Manila, we continue to experience heavy flooding – from Parañaque to Makati to Quezon City to Valenzuela and many areas in between.

President Marcos was wrong when he said the flooding situation has improved. It was only because the volume of water was not the same as it would have been if it were a typhoon or super typhoon, unlike in the past.

And here we are again grappling with the problem of flooding. Classes and work are often suspended, causing severe disruption in our day-to-day lives.

There’s nothing we can do about the heavy rains brought about by the southwest monsoon, but we must fix our flooding problems. We should have done this yesterday.

A governance problem

The Philippines can reduce its flooding problems, but there is no single flood control project that will solve them. As such, we should stop treating flood control as a collection of projects.

It’s time to treat flooding as a watershed, land-use, drainage and governance problem, rather than simply a construction problem.

Urban planning

For one, we must look into inadequate or poorly maintained drainage.

Has the government mapped out the entire drainage network and identified bottlenecks and undersized drains?

The maintenance of existing infrastructure is likewise important, although not as glamorous as new projects.

We must also stop building in places that naturally flood.

If an area is a natural floodplain, the government should not keep approving developments there without adequate mitigation.

That means that LGUs must have stronger enforcement of floodplain zoning, building codes and restrictions on development in high-risk areas.

Sponge infrastructure

The Philippines also needs to invest in “sponge” infrastructure that allows water to be absorbed, stored and released gradually – wetlands, mangroves, forests and watersheds, retention ponds and rain gardens.

We must make every peso for flood control traceable.

This is where the current scandal becomes an opportunity for reform.

Every flood control project should have a publicly accessible digital record showing details of how the project was built, how much it cost, when it was built, etc.

Accountable

And finally, the flood-control corruption perpetrators must be held liable – all those who are guilty, especially the masterminds.

President Marcos must prove that he is not protecting anyone, including those very close, if not part of the House of Marcos.

As Singson said, whoever is liable must be held to account.

Otherwise, we will continue to experience this massive corruption of state coffers, rain or shine.

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Email: [email protected]. Follow her on X @eyesgonzales. Column archives at EyesWideOpen on FB.