How long has it been since the flood control corruption scandal erupted into the national consciousness?
If I remember correctly, it began when President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., during his State of the Nation Address (Sona) last July 28, 2025, ordered an investigation after three tropical cyclones earlier that month spawned floods that inundated various parts of the country.
So far, the names of 15 contractors who bagged P100 billion worth of flood control projects since 2022 have been revealed to the public.
The Senate president admitted that he received a P30 million donation from a government contractor in the last elections but denied helping the latter to bag several flood control projects afterwards. He was later ousted.
The Blue Ribbon Committee started an inquiry into the anomalies, while the secretary of the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) admitted the existence of ghost projects with the caveat that he only found out about them just recently. He later stepped down from his post.
Sen. Panfilo Lacson delivered a privilege speech that exposed how contractors, government officials, and DPWH insiders divided up funds and built projects using substandard materials.
It was everything the public had long discussed in private conversations.
Government data revealed that a construction company linked to the wife of a Commission on Audit commissioner bagged nearly P200 million worth of flood control projects.
Perhaps it was mere coincidence.
The President ordered a lifestyle check on all government officials, but the results have not been revealed.
The finance secretary revealed that the economy lost over P100 billion to “ghost” flood control projects since 2023.
There was hardly any display of public outrage, but only because perhaps the revelation was not at all a surprise.
A former DPWH engineer tagged Senators Jinggoy Estrada and Joel Villanueva in the anomalies, but – surprise, surprise – the two legislators denied the allegations.
A bombshell was dropped when it was revealed that the daughter of the former DPWH secretary happened to be a business partner of a construction firm that bagged more than P2 billion in flood control projects in Bulacan since 2018.
The controversial Discaya couple would not be admitted to the state’s witness protection program. Not yet, anyway.
Senator Estrada’s name again cropped up when a P355 million insertion in the 2025 national budget intended for Bulacan appeared to match the claim that the senator allocated the same amount in the spending plan.
Vice President Sara Duterte criticized the Marcos administration for “moving too slowly” on the issue.
Last Sept. 21, on the 53rd anniversary of the declaration of martial law in the country, thousands of Filipinos took to the streets in Manila to protest against the flood control scam, which a former senior associate justice had described as the “biggest corruption scandal” in history.
Then-Ako Bicol Party-list Rep. Zaldy Co was conveniently out of the country when his name was implicated in the flood control scandal. Co has ignored repeated calls for him to fly back home.
The National Bureau of Investigation recommended the filing of indirect bribery and malversation charges against Estrada, Villanueva, and Co, among others. This was echoed by the Independent Commission for Infrastructure.
But there has been no word if both recommendations have been followed.
In the start of October, the justice secretary said his department was investigating widespread anomalies in flood control projects nationwide that revealed a tangled network of contractors, district engineers, and lawmakers allegedly in collusion.
Senator Lacson resigned as chairman of the Blue Ribbon Committee after his colleagues were “disappointed” by his handling of the investigation.
Top government officials ignored Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano’s urging for them to resign and call for a snap election.
In November, the President issued a reminder that it was he and his administration that set the ball rolling in the context of the flood control scandal, and that persons charged would be behind bars before Christmas.
That was the announcement that the whole country had been waiting for since the bubble burst, so to speak. And after everything else that has happened since the President’s Sona — and there have been many I did not mention here — that’s the only thing that matters.
But what about incumbent lawmakers who have been embroiled in the scandal? Will their heads roll too? Or will they get a slap on the wrist and go on to finish their term as if nothing had happened?
Or will this go the way of the former administration’s war against illegal drugs, where the small fries are sacrificed while the big fish are allowed to lead a life of impunity?
I guess, we’ll just have to wait and see.