No more stealing of public funds – Marcos

MANILA, Philippines — President Marcos vowed to ensure that there would be no repeat of corruption involving public funds similar to the flood control projects controversy, as he led the distribution of aid to typhoon-hit communities in Cagayan province yesterday.

During his speech at the Gonzaga People’s Gymnasium, Marcos pledged to make sure that public funds will be used to support programs that uplift the lives of Filipinos.

“We will ensure that there will be no repeat of what you are seeing. We assure you that every centavo of your money…will go to things that will improve the lives of our countrymen, make the lives of your families comfortable and to achieve the new Philippines we are working on,” the President said in Filipino.

Marcos, who had ordered an extensive probe into alleged anomalies in infrastructure projects, said that more than P255 billion initially allocated to flood control projects next year has been transferred to other agencies’ programs.

“Imagine, if we did not do it (scrutinizing of flood control projects), the P255 billion would have been spent elsewhere. We canceled all the flood control projects for 2026,” the President said.

The programs set to benefit from the reallocated funds include the social welfare department’s Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program, Assistance for Individuals in Crisis, Payapa at Masaganang Pamayanan Program, Sustainable Livelihood Program and the Department of Education’s projects for classroom construction and rehabilitation, among many others.

Marcos was accompanied by Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) Secretary Rex Gatchalian during the ceremonial distribution of assistance to typhoon-affected residents of the province.

They handed P10,000 in cash aid to each of the 2,533 beneficiaries from the towns of Gonzaga and Sta. Ana in Cagayan.

Affected residents also received family food packs from the DSWD. Each FFP contains six kilos of rice, 10 canned goods, five sachets of instant coffee and five sachets of chocolate drink, enough to sustain a household of five for two to three days.

“All of these (FFPs), as you can see, are from the DSWD. These will be given to those who were displaced, those who had to leave their homes and evacuate and they all came from the DSWD,” Marcos said.

Besides Cagayan, the DSWD also dispatched over 11,310 food packs to Masbate, 10,370 to Sorsogon, 500 to Oriental Mindoro and 400 to Western Samar.

Over 1,300 packs of ready-to-eat food were likewise given to stranded passengers in eight seaports, including the Manila North Port.

Including the relief packs distributed during Tropical Depression Mirasol and Super Typhoon Nando, DSWD spokesperson assistant secretary Irene Dumlao said the agency has already mobilized around 108,000 family food packs and P73 million worth of humanitarian assistance for residents affected by the three typhoons.

“We expect this number to increase within the day as our field offices continue distributing assistance,” she said at the Saturday News Forum in Quezon City.

As of yesterday, official figures from the DSWD showed that 641,000 families, or roughly 2.2 million people from 6,619 barangays, were hit by Opong and the two other typhoons. — Jose Rodel Clapano, Emmanuel Tupas