Says issue links solons and their contractors
THE House of Representatives has no business investigating the Department of Public Works and Highways’ (DPWH) failed flood control programs because the issue involves lawmakers and their contractors, House majority leader Ferdinand Alexander “Sandro” Marcos said yesterday.
The 31-year-old presidential son said lawmakers should just wait for results of an investigation being conducted by the DPWH on the orders of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.
“I actually agree (that the House should not investigate),” he told reporters. “Why would a body investigate itself? I think it would be wise and prudent for us to wait as to what the executive has to say and what their actions are with regards to the President’s speech in the SONA (State of the Nation Address). I think we shouldn’t get ahead of ourselves.”
The younger Marcos said that while the House can help identify “where the anomalies are,” it remains “primarily the prerogative of the Executive to be able to identify where these anomalies lie, given the fact that again, the accused so to speak is within our, within the Legislature.”
Rep. Marcos made the comment as the committee on public accounts chaired by Rep. Terry Ridon (PL, Bicol Saro) started its hearing on the issue of failed, delayed and substandard and even “ghost” flood control projects.
He declined to say if the Ridon panel is just wasting time but said the House may help the Executive by looking into the waste management in Metro Manila “that causes the flooding.”
“There are plenty of things to be probed that are not solely reliant or do not rely upon the anomalies that the executive spoke about. The House can assist in many, many other ways,” he said.
The President, in his SONA on July 28, ordered the DPWH to review all completed, failed, unfinished, and even “ghost” flood control projects within the last three years, and submit to him a complete list.
The Chief Executive has vowed that someone would be held accountable for the recent massive flooding incidents in the country, particularly in Metro Manila, which easily gets paralyzed during the rainy season.
Navotas Rep. Tobias Tiangco earlier said the President was obviously alluding to lawmakers when he said that those who are profiting from public works projects in the annual national budget should be ashamed of themselves because of the recent massive floodings, especially in Metro Manila.
The President has identified 15 contractors which secured nearly 20 percent of the P545.64-billion allocated for flood control from July 2022 to May 2025. About 20 percent of all projects, valued at roughly P100 billion, went to these contractors — five of which had projects in nearly all regions.
These are Legacy Construction Corp., Alpha & Omega Gen. Contractor & Development Corp., St. Timothy Construction Corp., EGB Construction Corp., and Road Edge Trading & Development Services, QM Builders, Topnotch Catalyst Builders Inc., Centerways Construction and Development Inc., Sunwest Inc., Hi-Tone Construction & Development Corp., Triple 8 Construction & Supply Inc., Royal Crown Monarch Construction, Waowao Builders, MG Samidan Construction, and LR Tiqui Builders Inc.
Rep. Elizalde Co (PL, Ako Bicol), who chaired the committee on appropriations in the 19th Congress, said in 2022 that he had already divested all his interests in Sunwest Construction in 2019,
Public Works Secretary Manuel Bonoan earlier told the Ridon panel that one of the greatest “challenges” that the department has been facing is the shallowness of the country’s riverbeds.
Bonoan said the DPWH has been trying to address the siltation problem in Laguna Lake but the lack of budget to acquire dredging equipment is a huge stumbling block in desiltation efforts.
He has also said that the responsibility of controlling floods in Metro Manila has long been transferred to the MMDA “lock, stock and barrel” even if the DPWH still provides technical assistance such as rehabilitating major pumping stations.
During the resumption of the committee’s hearing yesterday, Caloocan City Rep. Edgar Erice continued to blame the tons of solid wastes being dumped daily in Metro Manila, alone, for the recent massive floodings.
Erice noted that about 1.8 million tons of garbage are uncollected and end up in Metro Manila’s waterways each annually. He said discipline among residents can only be achieved if a proper waste management system is in place because the public has no place to dispose their garbage.
“If your house is only 10 square meters and the garbage truck did not collect for a week, where will you put your garbage? You’ll be forced to throw it in rivers, streets and it clogs drainages and in the end, waterways,” he told the panel, noting that while Metro Manila produces 11,000 tons of garbage daily, only around 30 to 40 percent is collected.
Erice cited a 2020 scientific study published by Bloomberg, which states that the Philippines accounts for 34.7 percent of the plastic pollution in the world’s oceans, “far more than any other country.”
He said that even if only half, or about 5,000 tons of the daily waste are uncollected, 1.8 million tons of garbage a year still end up in waterways, destroying pumping stations.
