Fraud control for flood control

How did it come to be that life-threatening events of vast magnitude turned out to be grand money-making opportunities for some human vermin who, by their deeds, made life even harder for the survivors of the natural catastrophe made worse by their greed? Woe to those who engaged in such evil schemes, woe to those whose fraudulent acts ruined lives and livelihoods. A plague on all their houses, a ruinous rot on all their earthly possessions.

What we now know is not new. But this time, it took a widespread calamity to occur in July for the scumbags to be unmasked by Mother Nature’s fury. High-budget flood control projects turned out to be substandard output that made danger zones even more dangerous. In some places, zero output, meaning that ghost projects made it to the flood control budget.

What were these fraudsters and highwaymen thinking while they were high and dry in their flood-proof homes, and they were seeing on TV and social media images of people bobbing up and down in floodwaters, waist-deep, neck-deep, river-deep? In the words of one senator during a hearing, “lumulutang-lutang.” Did it even occur to any of these contractors that “I might have caused this”? Because they know that they did not deliver according to the specs, or not at all.

In a Senate hearing three days ago, only seven of 15 identified and invited 15 contractors showed up (see “Just 7 of 15 tagged firms face Senate ‘flood’ probe,” Inquirer banner story, 8/20/25), prompting one senator to move for the issuance of subpoenas. The absent contractors were perhaps still busy covering their tracks as criminals are wont to do, or finding ways to lessen their culpability. Sending representatives will not do, one senator warned, as they have no answers to give.

Bulacan province bore the brunt of the series of typhoons that caused massive flooding. What happened to the flood control projects for this rice-producing part of the so-called Central Plains of Luzon? The National Capital Region and other provinces had it bad, too. Flood control projects in the form of dredging operations have been slow, sloppy, absent, or few and far between despite billions allocated for them. We saw how some dikes crumbled with rain, showing their innards made of inferior materials. But happy are those who made a killing. Who are they? Where are they?

How can a contractor with a measly P250,000 in capital bag a P5-billion flood control project? Did it deliver promptly and according to the specs? If P250,000 is all it takes, many (including me) could easily outmatch that. If he and his partners were not aided by government insiders (elected, appointed, career bureaucrats), how could they have been so blessed and so lucky to have won contracts? How could another contractor with P1.25 million capital bag a P7.58-billion contract? What was it like in the prequalification stage?

Flashback: During the three-year COVID-19 pandemic, when countless Filipinos were either dying or dead, unscrupulous individuals with shell companies also made a killing by supplying overpriced face masks, face shields, and other personal protective equipment. Worse, they eased out Filipino PPE manufacturers of good standing in favor of inferior China-made products. That was during the Duterte presidency when the head of state, aka commander in chief of the Republic, became a nocturnal being of sorts. In all, 66,864 COVID-19 deaths in the Philippines (7,010,681 worldwide) were recorded.

What happened to the questionable Pharmally deal? Has anyone been convicted yet? How is it that hereabouts, tragedy, and disaster breed scoundrels laughing all the way to the bank?

Fraud control/anti-fraud patrol and other fraud-busting mechanisms for flood control project implementors sound good to hear. But until we see the kleptos haled into court and end up behind bars, the cycle of fraud will never end. There is a small bureaucracy (under the Department of Environment and Natural Resources?) that oversees flood control that was brought up during the Senate hearing last Tuesday. There is? But the DENR and the Department of Public Works and Highways do not seem to know each other’s whereabouts. The right hand does not know what the left hand is doing.

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