MANILA, Philippines – The Marcos administration’s investigation into flood control projects was less a genuine attempt to curb corruption and more a political maneuver to consolidate power and restore waning public trust, a think tank said January 23.
Speaking at the Birdtalk 2026 Yearstarter forum, IBON Foundation research head Rosario Guzman argued the crackdown on anomalous infrastructure projects backfired and instead exposed deep rifts within the ruling elite.
“It is not really about having the resolve,” Guzman said regarding President Ferdinand Marcos Jr's public shaming of abusive contractors and legislators. “That is actually just the move to assert control and regain public support.
The Marcos administration kicked off its high-profile corruption crackdown in July 2025 after the President ordered a massive audit of all flood control infrastructure projects funded since mid-2022. Subsequent hearings by the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee since September 2025 revealed a staggering scale of irregularity.
Key findings from the ensuing probes revealed that 6,021 of 9,855 identified flood control projects, worth about ₱350 billion, reportedly lacked technical descriptions. Marcos called this “disturbing” as it prevents the projects’ existence from being verified.
A University of the Philippines National College of Public Administration and Governance (UP-NCPAG) policy note estimated that corruption in these projects cost the economy between ₱42.3 billion and ₱118.4 billion from 2023 to 2025 alone.
Flood management allocations in the national budget swelled to ₱675.65 billion in just three years under Marcos, already overtaking the ₱612.28 billion total spent during the previous Duterte’s administration’s full six-year term, UP-NCPAG found.
The political fallout was immediate. The controversy triggered the ouster of former House Speaker Martin Romualdez and Senate President Francis Escudero after both were embroiled in the corruption scandal.
The Office of the Ombudsman filed charges that led to the issuance of arrest warrants for 18 suspects, including former House Appropriations Committee Chair Zaldy Co, marking the first wave of cases to reach court.
Former senator Bong Revilla also surrendered to authorities on January 20 after an arrest warrant was issued against him for graft and malversation charges related to a ₱92.8-million ghost project in Pandi, Bulacan.
At least eight Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) officials were also arrested or surrendered in November 2025 regarding a ₱289-million anomalous project in Oriental Mindoro.
While Marcos projected a toughness “he had never seen or shown before,” she noted that the strategy failed to quell public dissatisfaction.
“The public was instead enraged by the obscene wealth and luxury of the contractors and legislators… while the lives of ordinary Filipinos remained burdened with insecure jobs and livelihood, low incomes, rising prices, and diminished social services,” she said.
Public outrage was stoked further by the social media flaunting of the so-called “nepo babies” linked to the controversial figures. Influencers and scions such as Claudine Co, Vernice Enciso, Jammy Cruz, and Gela Alonte drew ire for displaying lavish lifestyles online while the flood control scandal unfolded.
Guzman argued the corruption in the country is “systemic” and embedded within the national budget itself.
This aligns with data showing that despite massive allocations for climate mitigation, spending remains heavily skewed toward infrastructure prone to patronage rather than effective adaptation.
She cited the ballooning of unprogrammed appropriations, which reached ₱731.4 billion, along with discretionary funds under the DPWH as key mechanisms for this corruption.
“Corruption is not accidental or low-level,” Guzman noted. “It was systematically built into the budget process itself and required approval and machinery at the highest levels.”
The fiasco reached a boiling point when Co, Ako Bicol party-list representative who’s currently at large, surfaced to implicate Romualdez and Marcos as the alleged final recipients of billions in kickbacks.
Critics view this infighting as an exposure of “bureaucrat capitalism,” where public officials allegedly utilize their positions to accumulate private wealth.
Despite these serious allegations, Guzman said no cases have been filed against the so-called “big fish.”
Agencies constitutionally mandated to probe corruption – including the Office of the Ombudsman, the Commission on Audit, and the Department of Justice – have reportedly failed to initiate investigations into these high-level claims.
This lack of accountability persists even as the country grapples with the failure of its trillion-peso climate budget to prevent catastrophic flooding.
READ: 1.1T climate budget, but PH still drowning
Guzman said the investigations initiated by the President are now widely perceived as an attempt to distract from the fact that corruption often originates from the very top of the political hierarchy.
“The public, especially the poor, was enraged,” she said. “It has become increasingly clear... that the investigation initiated by the President is only intended to whitewash the grim reality.” - fyt.ph
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