ESPRESSO MORNINGS
By Joe Zaldarriaga
Under his guidance, Meralco achieved unprecedented milestones, clinching a historic 3-peat Company of the Year title at the IABC Philippine Quill Awards, scoring the only PR Team of the Year trophy bestowed at the Anvil Awards, and securing numerous honors at international and local communication awards.
Manong Joe’s leadership also extends as a respected member of the Board of Trustees for the Public Relations Society of the Philippines (PRSP), concurrent with his role as Chairman of the International Association of Business Communicators Philippines (IABC Philippines) where he also served as its President.
Manong Joe is a distinguished awardee of the medallion of honor and scroll of commendation from the University of Manila, owing to his years in public service as a communications professional. He shares his insights through columns in renowned publications, including The Philippine Star’s The Z Factor, and Philippine News Agency’s ESPRESSO MORNINGS.
Public outrage sparked by revelations on the country’s flood control budget and projects is not just understandable but justified, given the rotten system that has allowed corruption and incompetence to thrive for years, while Filipinos endured knee- to neck-deep floods every rainy season.
Following his revelation on the concentration of flood control contracts among a select few firms, President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. said his government is eyeing filing economic sabotage cases against contractors of ghost flood control projects. This comes after field inspections of major flood control projects tagged as “completed” in official records but turned out to be either unfinished, substandard or worse – non-existent.
The recent revelations are only a concrete confirmation of what we all know has been going on: that much of the money meant to serve and benefit our communities are going into the pockets of a select few.
Contractors who pocket public funds without fulfilling their contracts should not only be named and shamed – they must be fined, blacklisted, and prosecuted. Likewise, government officials who approved, tolerated, or failed to monitor these projects must also be held accountable and must face a heavier penalty. Corruption is never a one-sided affair. Every contractor who pocketed public funds had a government counterpart who enabled it – whether by incompetence, negligence, or outright collusion.
What makes this scandal more infuriating is the irony that billions have been funneled into non-existent flood control projects while other essential social services and sectors make do with limited budgets. Senior Citizens Party-List Rep. Rodolfo “Ompong” Ordanes perfectly described it when he lamented difficulties in requesting funds for programs that will benefit millions of Filipino elderly and yet billions are easily pocketed by a select few.
Accountability is non-negotiable but while we demand a full investigation into the country’s flood control mess, we must be vigilant against turning this scandal into a mere witch hunt.
We must demand that the investigations on this do not only identify and punish the culprits but also pave the way for systemic reforms. Unless we go beyond witch hunts and actually fix the broken system, we will be having this same conversation again in a few years – wondering why we’re still knee-deep in water and where our taxes went.
Addressing the problem should be rooted in three pillars: complete transparency, procurement reform, and rethinking flood control.
First is complete transparency: as I have previously mentioned, the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) must launch an open-access digital platform or website where every project is logged — complete with contractor names, budgets, timelines, and progress reports verified by independent third-party inspectors. This way, the public can see the actual status of these projects – whether they are real or not.
Second, procurement reform. With only a handful of contractors cornering nearly PHP100 billion in flood control projects, there is clearly a problem with the bidding system. Procurement must be broadened and strengthened to allow more credible contractors to participate and to prohibit dubious, substandard ones from winning contracts. Blacklisting violators should be strictly enforced.
Last is a call to rethink flood control. We cannot just keep on building dikes or clearing out drainage. Flood control must be integrated with urban planning and should be holistically developed with not just engineering standards in mind, but also long-term viability, climate resilience, and environmental sustainability.
President Marcos Jr. was right to call out the mess, but his administration must ensure this does not end as another political spectacle.
Contractors who pocketed public funds must be prosecuted to the full extent of the law. But equally, systems must be reformed to ensure that such abuses do not happen again. Accountability without reform is hollow. Reform without accountability is meaningless.
At the end of the day, Filipinos are not demanding miracles. They are demanding results – and rightly so, because it is the people’s money they are plundering.
