How extensive will BBM
probe fake flood works?
by Jarius Bondoc - Sep 10, 2025
What’s Bongbong Marcos’ scope in probing flood control scams? From it the public will judge his seriousness for reforms.
Will his independent commission cover only crooked DPWH engineers and contractors? If so, it will only duplicate new Sec. Vince Dizon’s filing of criminal raps.
Will the three non-government commissioners look beyond DPWH into systemic failure? That’s what various sectors expect.
As a management school dean stated, “Most depressing about the flood control scandal is how our government has so many checks and balances built in that failed us in the process. It’s not just the DPWH signing off on ghost projects but the entire system that showed itself to be useless in preventing plunder:
“(1) The Commission on Audit was not able to uncover this;
“(2) Governors and mayors raised no fuss that year in and year out nothing was being built in their jurisdiction. Nor did their congressmen raise concern of their pork insertions being stolen;
“(3) The Philippine Contractors Accreditation Board under the Dept of Trade and Industry saw no anomalies among its many members;
“(4) The Ombudsman saw no reason to file cases against anyone;
“(5) Let’s not even count how many graft cases the Sandiganbayan throws out for the flimsiest reasons;
“(6) Newer agencies like the Government Procurement Policy Board could’ve helped fix the flawed bidding, but didn’t;
“(7) The Philippine Competition Commission hasn’t filed a single case against procurement cartels.
“Lahat kayo walang ginawa.
“Then we ask why? Voters are happy to re-elect criminals to their positions. Makatikim lang ng ilang libo, pikit-mata na rin.
Apparently so do journalists and vloggers who are happy to support anyone for a fee. “Lahat tayo sangkot dito. That’s the deepest pain of all.”
Meantime, the Executive and Legislative locked horns over the 2026 DPWH budget. That budget is as sleazy as the ones in 2023, 2024 and 2025.
Congressmen and senators unearthed egregiousness. In Malacañang’s 2026 National Expenditure Program are DPWH flood works that have already been completed two years ago. Hundreds of DPWH items have exactly the same rounded-off amounts; meaning, they’re not detailed engineering plans.
Executive Sec Lucas Bersamin slammed those as “attempts to shift the blame for their own corruption and failures onto the Executive. Members of the Cabinet will not tolerate any attack on the integrity and reputation of the executive, and any effort to hold the budget process hostage by political theatrics. All our investigations into the anomalies will be futile if the sources of corruption remain unchecked.”
Bersamin was the drafter of BBM’s much-awaited executive order on the independent commission. Was he hinting that BBM won’t include Cabinet members and subalterns? That smells of whitewash.
Budget Sec Amenah Pangandaman is trying to distance herself from DPWH’s budget. There are 12,000 items in 700 pages, and DBM can’t review each one. More so since it doesn’t have a staff civil engineer or architect, she claims.
It’s like saying DBM can’t review the health budget because it doesn’t have a doctor. Nor the agriculture budget because it doesn’t have an agri-engineer.
Pangandaman should know more than anyone else that government budgeting is “bottom-up”. Funding proposals should not fall from the sky but emanate from local governments. Example: Before groundbreaking, the new Iloilo International Airport entailed consultations with 50 or so barangays in two affected municipalities.
Sure, a former DPWH secretary and two plunderers sit in the Senate, along with five more who illegally accept campaign contributions from contractors. Sixty-seven congressmen are also DPWH contractors. Legislators endorse flood works as pork barrels from which to extract up to 50-percent kickback.
Congress must purge itself.
Still, for DBM to now alibi that it has no civil engineer is to pass the buck. The Executive is not blameless.
Recall that as far back as Aug. 3rd, 2023, DBM publicized through Presidential Communications Office: “Government is giving priority to measures addressing flooding by giving substantial allocation to flood controls under DPWH.
“In a press briefing, Pangandaman was asked about government plans to address massive flooding. She said DPWH has the flagship Flood Management Program that received an allocation of P185 billion for this year (2023).
“’For 2024, we proposed P215.643 billion under the DPWH Flood Management Program,’ she said.”
Congress more than doubled the 2024 flood budget to P450 billion, but moved it to Unprogrammed Funds. Meaning, government would implement those if new money came in.
Pangandaman was asked at the Senate the other Tuesday why she didn’t advise BBM to veto the flood works. No reply.
And so in 2024, the Finance Dept ordered the transfer of hundreds of billions from various agencies to the Bureau of Treasury. That included P60 billion from our Philhealth.
In short, Philhealth money for members’ hospitalization and medical procedures went instead to fake or flawed flood works.
Will the independent commission deign to investigate?
* * *
Catch Sapol radio show, Saturdays, 8 to 10 a.m., DWIZ (882-AM).
#FloodControlScams #DeptofPublicWorksandHighways
#DPWH
#DeptofBudgetandManagement
#DBM
#BongbongMarcos
#BBM
#ExecutiveSecretaryLucas Bersamin
#AmenahPangandaman
#SenatePH
#HouseofRepsPH
#FakeFloodWorks
#Malacañang
#PresidentialCommunicationsOffice
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