Marcos: Resignation not the end for officials in flood works mess
President Marcos on Monday warned officials implicated in anomalous flood control projects that resigning would not absolve them of accountability.
“That’s not enough,” the President firmly answered when asked if officials implicated in flood works irregularities could escape accountability by merely quitting their posts.
“There is a great deal of damage that has been caused —not only financial damage or economic damage, but actual damage to people’s lives,” he said in the latest episode of his “BBM Podcast” aired on Monday, with Philip Cu-Unjieng of the Manila Bulletin as his interviewer.
Mr. Marcos said his conscience could not bear the fact that families were killed because of “lousy” flood control projects that collapsed when these were badly needed.
“How can you live with that? I can’t live with it. So, I won’t live with it. So, we’ll keep pushing,” he said.
‘Sniff and suspicion’
While Mr. Marcos mentioned no names, his own cousin Leyte Rep. Martin Romualdez had resigned as Speaker of the House of Representatives after the lower chamber was dragged into the corruption scandal. Romualdez had denied any links to project contractors and called allegations that he received kickbacks “false” and “pure fiction.”
Another ally, Elizaldy “Zaldy” Co, resigned last week as representative of the party list Ako Bicol and is still abroad, despite a clamor for his return to face accusations that he profited by as much as P35 billion from anomalous flood control projects.
Apart from the President’s allies, Sen. Francis Escudero has also been implicated in the controversy and was forced to step down as Senate President last month.
Mr. Marcos said he always had “a sniff and suspicion of corruption in government,” but was still “shocked” by the extent of the scandal.
“And I said this cannot persist. Nothing will happen to the Philippines if we carry on this way … And we will just be this little nation that’s feeding upon itself,” he said.
Mr. Marcos said he did not want his administration to have a resigned attitude, with nothing being done to address the systemic corruption.
“And this is what we’ve seen over so many past decades. I didn’t want to be another one. I didn’t want to be a part of that kind of attitude, especially in terms of public service,” he said.
Foreign aid
On Monday the President also spoke at the 2025 Philippine Development Forum in Mandaluyong City, promising his audience of foreign aid and loan providers that his administration would not tolerate wastage of public funds.
“No money will be wasted. We will not allow the squandering of the nation’s coffers,” he said.
“Be assured that we continue to listen to the concerns and recommendations of our development partners,” Mr. Marcos said, as he cited efforts to fully tap the Official Development Assistance (ODA) provided by these partners and introduce guidelines “to streamline the process, cut bureaucratic delays and accelerate public service” at the Investment Coordination Committee, a high-level economic body of the government.
Mr. Marcos also expressed the Philippines’ “readiness” in its transition from lower-middle income to upper middle-income status by next year—which also entails that the country’s eligibility for certain ODA may be reduced or eliminated.
But according to an ODA report by the Department of Economy, Planning, and Development (DepDev), loans and grants to the Philippines increased 6 percent from $37.3 billion in 2023 to $39.6 billion in 2024.
The country’s 2024 ODA portfolio is the highest in a decade, consisting of 92 project loans, 19 program loans and 315 grants.
Among the projects benefiting from these loan commitments are the Laguna Lakeshore Road Network Project, the Dalton Pass East Alignment Road Project Phase I, new funding for the Bataan-Cavite Interlink Bridge Project, the Metro Manila Subway Project, and the Infrastructure for Safer and Resilient Schools Project.
Japan continued to be the country’s biggest partner with $13.23 billion in active commitments, supporting 82 loans and grants.
Other key partners include the World Bank, Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank and South Korea.
