President Marcos on flood control probe: We’re not done yet

VANCOUVER — A year after exposing the multibillion-peso flood control anomalies, President Marcos warned that the government is not done yet in holding into account those behind substandard and ghost projects in the country, including those in the past administrations.

“I cannot say that we have done enough because we are not done yet,” Marcos said at a press conference with the Philippine media who covered his four-day state visit here.

In his State of the Nation Address (SONA) last year, he slammed corrupt government personnel for getting kickbacks from subpar or non-existent flood control.

He said they should be ashamed for causing suffering to communities in typhoon-hit areas.

Marcos is set to deliver his fifth and penultimate SONA on July 27.

He said previous administrations have failed to address the issue, noting that former House minority leader the late Nonoy Andaya had already uncovered the over P300 billion flood control mess in 2018.

In 2017-2018, according to Marcos, then president Rodrigo Duterte acknowledged that there were “great problems” in terms of the flood control projects.

“But nothing happened,” the President said. “Having acknowledged it, it did not find accountability in anybody. So I guess that was left up to me to do. And so we are still doing it. We’re still working on it.”

He admitted there is a deep-seated system of corruption in the country that requires not only structural changes in the way government is run, in the way the budget is written, but also a change in attitude.

“I told them to be ashamed. If you were to ask me whether they actually felt ashamed? Some didn’t. They thought what they were doing was their right – that they weren’t doing anything wrong and that ‘that’s just how things are run here,’” he said.

“That’s the hardest part to change. The culture, the culture of within government where to take a, I mean, you know, they put all kinds of nice words, rebate, kickback. There is no other right word for it, that’s kickback,” Marcos said.

Don’t look at me

Marcos denied allegations linking him to the flood mess.

“I’m the one who exposed all of this. And I’m the only one that has started to do anything about this,” he said.

“Did you see past presidents doing these? Did they have anyone imprisoned? Did they freeze [bank] accounts. Did they conduct investigation? There was none. It only happened under my administration,” he said.

“Then they’ll say I’m the one who’s behind this. Well, if it’s really my racket, why would I ruin my racket? Right? That makes absolutely no sense,” Marcos said.