‘The floods will rise again and again. So will the demand for justice, louder each time, until the nation’s lament finds its long-denied resolution.’
THE Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) has requested P250.8 billion for its 2026 flood management program, but its proposal is littered with scandalous items. It seeks to fund flood-control projects already completed years ago and repair roads still in good condition.
Senior DPWH officials were reportedly blindsided by padded listings and vague line items that appear ripe for abuse. Most chilling is their feigned ignorance before the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee, where they claimed to know nothing about “ghost projects.”
The message to their accomplices — legislators and private contractors — is clear: business as usual.
But business can no longer continue as usual. Their plunder leaves towns and cities underwater and commuters stranded for hours, as happened just last weekend.
We demand to know where the hundreds of billions supposedly spent on flood control have gone. The money has obviously not been spent on projects, but has instead been siphoned into the pockets of crooked officials, politicians and contractors.
The recent deluge was not simply an act of nature. It was an act of corruption. Reports of P142.7 billion in budget insertions for flood control this year, much of it overlapping or redundant, are now under scrutiny. If confirmed, this means hundreds of billions siphoned into unaccountable bank accounts remain untouched while the nation drowns. The money disappears as the waters rise.
Heads must roll — not in inquiry rooms but in courtrooms, where accountability is enforced with the sword of justice. While floods are worsened by trash-clogged waterways, reckless urbanization and sinking ground, corruption is the deadliest undertow. It steals public funds, washes away homes and livelihoods, and destroys trust in government.
The Senate panel is holding hearings, its members displaying outrage and issuing statements. But it cannot convict. Contractors and politicians behind ghost projects remain free to slice the next line item in the next budget cycle. This cycle will not break until heads roll at the highest levels.
The burden falls squarely on President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. Only he holds the executive prerogative to cut through this institutionalized corruption. His newly appointed public works secretary, Vivencio Dizon, and the promised independent commission on flood control anomalies offer a glimmer of hope.
But every day of delay emboldens the corrupt. Every peso wasted on substandard, overpriced, and ghost flood control projects forces another family to wade through neck-deep waters, another child to be carried on a makeshift raft.
Accountability cannot be theoretical. It must be visible, swift, and real — or it is no accountability at all. When justice stalls, corruption triumphs.
Heads must roll, and soon. Until real prosecutions are made and real officials fall, the equation will remain: floods, hearings, excuses — minus justice. And they — the erring politicians, DPWH officials and private contractors — must be the first to face judgment.
The floods will rise again and again. So will the demand for justice, louder each time, until the nation’s lament finds its long-denied resolution.
