Drowned out by the Middle East crisis and skyrocketing fuel prices, and now the looming impeachment of Vice President Sara Duterte, the flood control scandal is in danger of being relegated to the back burner.
Flood control and other infrastructure anomalies are in danger of being forgotten particularly in areas outside the provinces and districts where multiple investigations have focused such as Bulacan and Oriental Mindoro.
A complaint filed on April 10 with the Office of the Ombudsman by an anti-corruption advocate should remind the nation that the flood control and budgeting mess extends beyond those areas.
Juniper Dominguez filed a complaint for graft, technical malversation, dishonesty and falsification of public documents against the former public works chief in the Cordilleras, Khadaffy Tanggol, and private contractor MG Samidan Construction over what Dominguez described as the delayed completion of a P96.4-million flood control project in Mountain Province.
The complaint alleged that the project, awarded on June 10, 2024, was supposed to be completed in early 2025, but work began only in December last year amid the flood control scandal, and the project remains unfinished.
Included in the complaint together with Tanggol, who is now assigned in Bicol, are members of the DPWH-Cordilleras’ bids and awards committee, project signatories and auditors as well as a representative of Samidan Construction.
Similar cases of suspected “ghost” flood control projects being rushed into implementation have been reported in other parts of the country after President Marcos launched his crackdown on anomalous public works projects.
Before national attention was diverted by the fuel crisis, officials were saying that the corruption probe would be expanded to the rest of the country. Public frustration has been spreading as the probes into both the public works mess and the thievery institutionalized in the national budget process appear to have stalled.
Concerned citizens can help ensure that the issue continues to be pursued, with the same zeal that characterized the start of the anti-corruption campaign when President Marcos told crooks to have some shame, “Mahiya naman kayo.”
Billions – possibly trillions of pesos in people’s money – have been lost to systematic looting by public officials. With the profits so massive, the looting may be continuing as investigations proceed at a lackadaisical pace.
Whether or not the case in the Cordilleras has legal basis, the complaint should remind the nation that the questionable flood control projects exposed so far could be just the tip of the iceberg, and there can be no slowdown in the anti-corruption drive.