THE flood control scam now hogging the public limelight did not appear out of thin air but can be traced back to questionable budget insertions made during the Duterte administration, according to Manila Rep. Joel Chua, who warned that years of unchecked practices had allowed ghost and substandard projects to proliferate nationwide.
“Mainit na usapin nitong mga nakaraang linggo ang mga anomalya sa national infrastructure projects na ibinahagi mismo ng Pangulo at ng ilang opisyal ng gobyerno. Naglabasan ang mga pangalan ng mga contractor na paulit-ulit nabigyan ng flood control projects – mga proyektong kalaunan ay napatunayang ghost projects o kaya naman ay may mababang kalidad ng pagkakagawa, o di kaya’y mga contractor na undercapitalized ngunit nabigyan ng malalaking proyekto,” said Chua, chair of the House Committee on Good Government and Public Accountability and co-chair of the Infra-Comm, during his opening statement at the start of the inquiry.
Chua said the controversy was not born overnight but could be traced to long-standing practices of budget insertions that proliferated during the Duterte years, creating an environment where anomalies thrived unchecked.
He reminded colleagues that the Commission on Audit (COA) had issued reports from 2017 to 2020 revealing thousands of projects that were either delayed, defective or never implemented at all, costing the public hundreds of billions.
“Noong 2017 pa lang, nagsimula nang maglabasan ang mga babala. Sunod-sunod ang mga ulat ng COA mula 2017 hanggang 2020 na naglantad ng ilang libong proyektong delayed, depektibo, o tuluyang hindi naipatupad – na nagkakahalaga ng daan-daang bilyong piso,” Chua recalled.
“Noong 2018, iniulat ng Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism (PCIJ) ang pagkakasangkot ng ilang malalaking contractor sa mga flood control projects na na-delay o hindi natapos,” he noted.
The Infra-Comm, composed of the Committees on Public Accounts, on Good Government and Public Accountability, and on Public Works and Highways, formally begins its probe into anomalous flood control projects and other infrastructure programs.
Chua said that the flood control scam is not new and added that even Congress had once confirmed the pattern in 2019.
“Noong 2019 naman, mismong House Committee on Appropriations ang nakatuklas na maraming flood control projects ang prone sa tinatawag na budget insertion – mga proyektong isinisingit sa pondo nang walang malinaw na konsultasyon o batayan. Ayon sa kanilang ulat, umabot sa bilyon-bilyong piso ang halaga ng mga proyektong isinisingit, na nagbukas ng malawak na puwang para sa katiwalian at maling paggamit ng kaban ng bayan,” he explained.
According to him, the flood control scam was further validated by no less than the country’s chief executive at the time.
“At noong 2020, mismong inamin ng dating pangulo (Duterte) na talamak ang mga ghost projects sa iba’t ibang rehiyon ng bansa,” Chua said.
“Sa madaling salita, hindi bago ang problemang ito. Ito ay problemang namana, naipon at napabayaan – at ngayon, lumulutang na parang sugat na matagal nang hindi ginagamot,” he stressed.
The Manila lawmaker reminded that part of the mess was misfeasance in project execution.
“Nagkaroon ng kapabayaan o misfeasance sa pagpapatupad ng mga proyektong hindi dumaan sa konsultasyon, maayos na bidding process, o masusing pag-aaral – ito ang dahilan kung bakit may mga proyektong mababa ang kalidad at hindi kapaki-pakinabang sa mga mamamayan,” Chua said.
“Nagkaroon din ng katiwalian o malfeasance sa pagtala ng mga ghost projects na hindi kailanman binuo ngunit patuloy na kumakain ng pondo,” he said.
For Chua, the task of the Infra-Comm is to identify exactly where these loopholes allowed anomalies to enter the system.
“Ang tanong, sa flood control lang ba ito?” he asked, hinting that the scope of the inquiry may widen.
The legislator assured that the proceedings were not meant to pit one agency against another but to find where corruption slipped through.
“Ngunit lilinawin natin, ang pag-imbita sa mga resource persons natin ngayon ay hindi para magturuan o magsiraan. Nandito tayo upang tukuyin kung saan nakakalusot ang katiwalian, paano ito nagiging posible, at sino ang nakikinabang,” Chua emphasized.
“Siguro po ay sasang-ayon ang lahat na uhaw tayo sa good governance sa kasalukuyang konteksto – dahil sa bawat pagdalaw ng bagyo ay lumulubog tayo,” Chua said.
“Para po sa seguridad ng buhay at kabuhayan ng mamamayang Pilipino, at para sa isang kinabukasang hindi na muling magmamana ng mga kapabayaan at katiwalian ng nakaraan,” Chua added.
