PRESIDENT Ferdinand Marcos Jr. said he wants a zero budget for flood control projects in 2026, saying enough funds are available from current appropriations for ongoing and pending projects.
He said government still has around P350 billion left for flood control projects in the current budget, which would ensure the continuity of these projects.
The President, in the second part of the BBM Podcast Episode 4 that aired on Monday night, said the removal of allocations for the flood control projects is part of amendments to the proposed budget of the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) for next year.
“Number one, we already are seeing na lahat ng flood control project na dapat ilalagay sa 2026 na budget, hindi na siguro kailangan (all flood control projects that will be included in the 2026 budget may not be needed). So, there will be no budget for 2026 for flood control,” he said.
The President has ordered a “sweeping review” of the proposed DPWH budget amid allegations of insertions of projects that are not aligned with the National Expenditure Program (NEP) of the executive branch and inclusion of certain projects that have been completed.
These alleged insertions and duplication of project allocations have prompted some lawmakers to propose the return of the 2026 NEP to the Department of Budget and Management.
Marcos expressed confidence the NEP return would not happen as he said the amendment needed is limited to the DPWH. He said the Executive has committed to make changes in the DPWH budget which would now exclude any allocation of flood control projects.
“Unilaterally, from our end in the Executive, I already instructed the DPWH to review and to rewrite the DPWH budget. So, we have a commitment to Congress that the rewritten DPWH budget will be submitted to them,” she said.
In the podcast, the President also vowed to go after the “big fish” or influential individuals involved in irregularities in publicly funded-infrastructure projects, particularly flood control projects.
He said the campaign against corruption would not succeed unless the “big fish” are caught and charged.
“You can’t dismantle that system until you remove those players. So, we will remove those players and whoever they are so that the system can run smoothly,” he said in Filipino, referring to big fish.
Marcos also reiterated there would be no sacred cows in his administration.
INDEPENDENT COMMISSION
Marcos said an executive order (EO) to establish an independent commission that will thoroughly investigate allegations of irregularities and corruption in the DPWH would soon be released.
The independent commission will recommend actions to be taken against parties and entities investigated by the body.
Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin said the EO is not meant to preempt congressional inquiries on the matter as Malacañang recognizes and respects the House’s initiative to look into the alleged corruption in flood control projects.
“We do confirm that we are working on an executive order that will deliver on what the President has started in the SONA (State of the Nation Address). But the objective there is to do as he had promised, to come up with an independent commission or body that would continue the inquiry into the issues that were raised in his SONA as well as in later statements that he made,” Bersamin, responding to minority leader Marcelino Libanan, said at the hearing of the House appropriations committee on the Office of the President’s P27.362-billion budget for 2026.
Bersamin, a retired chief justice, said the Executive does not mean to “preempt the Congress, especially this House, from doing its own, taking the initiative also in this respect.”
“This EO will not be barring you from doing that because that is your institutional responsibility also,” he added.
The House infrastructure committee (infra comm) which is composed of three panels — public accounts, good government and public accountability, and public works — is set to resume its probe into the controversy today.
The House hearing will resume a week after its members were ordered to “make a full disclosure of their financial, business or pecuniary interest that may be directly or indirectly affected by any investigation into the government’s past or present flood control projects.”
The Senate Blue Ribbon committee has its own investigation, where contractor Sarah Discaya yesterday named some House members who allegedly accepted commissions from her flood control projects.
POWERS
Caloocan City Rep. Edgar Erice said the minority is set file a measure to allow the President to form an independent commission with “coercive” and “subpoena powers” to investigate anomalous infrastructure projects.
Bersamin explained that the commission to be created by the President “would have a timeline, a sunset.”
“And if it becomes your privilege to look at it in the same way and maybe pass a law or laws regarding the investigation of these anomalies, we will not be a hindrance there,” he told congressmen.
“These are all in good faith, because unless we initiated the creation of an independent body, we’ll just be waiting for other institutions,” Bersamin said.
The infra comm, which is led by Rep. Terry Ridon (PL, Bicol Saro), chair of public accounts panel, said among resource persons summoned to attend today’s hearing are representatives of four contractors that allegedly cornered hundreds of millions of pesos worth of projects in Las Piñas City.
The four companies are Zero One Construction and Trading Inc., Omnicon Builders, I&E Construction Corp., and E.F. Chua Construction Inc. They were summoned on the request of Las Piñas City Rep. Mark Anthony Santos.
The infra comm has also summoned Sarag Discaya, president of Alpha and Omega General Contractor and Development Corp., whose companies also got multimillion-peso contracts in Las Piñas from 2022 to 2025.
Santos said Carlo R. Aguilar is the managing officer of I&E Construction Corp., which bagged 33 of 339 multimillion-peso projects in Las Piñas since 2022.
Aguilar is a former Las Piñas councilor, a defeated mayoralty candidate, a nephew of former senator Cynthia Villar, and a first cousin of Sen. Mark Villar headed the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) under the Duterte administration.
Santos said one of I&E’s projects, the P114.9-million Alabang–Zapote Diversion Road (from the Alabang–Zapote flyover to the C5 Bridge) approved in March 2025, has been suspended by the DPWH after reporting only 0.50 percent completion due to unresolved right-of-way issues.
“The question is: why did the DPWH allocate nearly P115 million for this project without first resolving the right-of-way problem? Is this now the agency’s standard practice?” he said.
Santos said Aguilar is also the authorized managing officer of Omnicon Builders which, he said, secured 39 projects despite lacking mayor’s and business permits. He said records also showed Aguilar’s link to Silverwolves Construction Corp., another firm based in Las Piñas that benefitted from government contracts.
ILOILO PROJECTS
Iloilo City Rep. Julienne “Jam-Jam” Baronda disputed Marcos’ observations that there are delayed and failed flood control projects in her district, which her office allegedly facilitated.
“Just like what I said right after the SONA of President Marcos, I welcome any and all investigations into the infrastructure projects in the legislative district of Iloilo City,” Baronda said in a statement. “I can assure everyone that the innuendos and assertions that there are ghost and substandard projects in the city whose funding requirements have been facilitated by this representation would be proven to be falsehoods.”
Marcos, in a visit to Iloilo City on August 13 to check the status of two flood mitigation projects in Barangay San Isidro, Jaro district, criticized delays and poor implementation of the flood control projects.
“Sa aking pagbisita sa Iloilo, nakita natin ang mga delayed at palpak na flood control projects na lalo pang nagpapalala ng pagbaha (In our visit to Iloilo City, we saw the delayed and failed flood control projects which worsens floods),” the President said then in a Facebook post.
Iloilo City Mayor Raisa Treñas earlier urged Baronda and the DPWH Regional Office VI to release a complete list of all projects implemented in Iloilo City from 2019 up to the present.
Baronda, however, said “no project was identified as a ghost, and no project was indicated as nonfunctioning.” In sum, she said, the claims of her critics are “all are just propaganda.”
She urged the Commission on Audit to conclude its probe swiftly so “that the malicious imputation would be slapped with the truth that these projects are aboveboard and are not tainted with graft and corruption.”
PROTEST ACTIONS
SOME 2,550 policemen will be deployed to ensure peace and order in planned protests on Friday in several areas in Metro Manila to denounce anomalies in flood control projects.
Maj. Hazel Asilo, spokesperson of the National Capital Region Police Office (NCRPO), said the PNP will not disperse the rallies unless they cause public disturbance.
“Overall, we deploying 2,550 personnel on Friday,” Asilo told a press briefing at Camp Crame yesterday.
Citing initial information, Asilo said the rallies will be held on Mendiola in Manila, at the DPWH office also in Manila, at the Senate building in Pasay City, and at the Batasang Pambansa complex in Quezon City.
“The NCRPO is making sure (we have enough men), rather be caught off guard,” she said.
Asilo said policemen will allow the protesters to air their grievances but they have to voluntarily disperse after a certain period of time.
“If they are not going to heed the request of our personnel, they will be dispersed… If they disturb traffic and are already causing disturbance, that will be the time they may be dispersed by our CDM (civil disturbance management) personnel,” she said.
FIGHT VS CORRUPTION
The Catholic Educational Association of the Philippines (CEAP) added its voice to the snowballing condemnation of corruption in government, particularly in flood control projects.
“Corruption in our country is so deeply rooted that we have long numbed ourselves to it. Recent events have unleashed public outrage, with mounting evidence of how corruption in infrastructure projects is entrenched in structures and systems of both government and the private sector,” CEAP said in a statement, “Proclaim Hope! Fight the Poison of Corruption!”
“It institutionalizes greed and deadens conscience, producing leaders and businesses driven by self-interest for wealth and power, brazen in corrupt acts, and callously indifferent to the suffering of the poor and powerless,” it added.
Meanwhile, retired generals including former Armed Forces and PNP chiefs, have joined hundreds of individuals and groups from various sectors in demanding accountability in relation to the anomalous flood control projects.
The retired generals were among 157 individuals who signed the statement a “Joint Civil Society Statement: Filipinos Call for Systemic Reform After the Flood Control Scandal” dated September 5. The statement was posted on the website of the Makati Business Club which is among 106 organizations that signed the document.
On the planned independent commission, the signatories said it should be composed of “representatives of unimpeachable integrity and competence.”
The generals were led by Renato De Villa, a former executive secretary, defense secretary, and Armed Forces chief.
Among the other generals are included former AFP chiefs Victor Ibrado and Alexander Yano, former PNP chief Gen. Recaredo Sarmiento, former Army chief Raul Urgello, and former PNP Criminal Investigation and Detection Group chief now Baguio City mayor Benjamin Magalong. – With Wendell Vigilia, Victor Reyes, and Gerard Naval
The other prominent personalities who signed the statement are former public works secretary Rogelio “Babes” Singson; former senator Franklin Drilon; Cardinal Pablo Virgilio David; Archbishop Socrates Villegas; former budget secretary Florencio Abad; and former National Economic Development Authority director general and former socio-economic planning secretary Cielito Habito.
“We the Filipino people express indignation at the multibillion peso flood control scandal that has harmed and killed our fellow Filipinos in a climate crisis that brings our country even deadlier storms,” the statement said.
The signatories expressed their “outrage” at government officials, “politicontractors” and private sector parties and their families and relatives who “unabashedly flaunt their lavish lifestyles as they steal our hard-earned taxpayer money.” – With Wendell Vigilia, Victor Reyes, and Gerard Naval
