Sen. Panfilo Lacson has laid out how billions of pesos in government-funded flood control projects ended up in the hands of corrupt contractors, public works officials and politicians through the years, resulting in persistent massive flooding and inflicting suffering on Filipinos.

Making good on his promise to explain the pork barrel insertions in the national budget, Lacson said in a privilege speech on Wednesday that he was focusing initially on questionable flood control projects, including those found to be “guni-guni” (imaginary) or “ghost” projects. “These do not include other infrastructure projects that are brimming with anomalies,” he said in Filipino. 

Lacson appeared under the weather and did not entertain interpellation of his privilege speech. Senate Minority Leader Vicente Sotto III explained that Lacson was not feeling well but would take up his colleagues’ questions on Tuesday.

In his speech, Lacson named the projects’ contractors and promised to name the others with the help of witnesses in his next expose. “Last week, the President took aim; today, I am pulling the trigger,” he said, referencing President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s recent public listing of contractors that have monopolized flood control projects nationwide. 

Mr. Marcos had said that of 2,409 accredited contractors, 15 cornered 18% of the entire ₱545-billion budget for flood mitigation projects undertaken by his administration from July 2022 to May 2025. He also said some projects worth ₱350 billion had no clear descriptions of the exact type of infrastructure being built.      

During his 4th State of the Nation Address in July, Mr. Marcos chided the corrupt officials behind anomalous flood control projects and said he had ordered the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) to come up with a list of these projects in every region in the past three years of his administration. He said an audit would be made to root out the projects that were failures, incomplete, or nonexistent.

‘Flooded Gates of Corruption’

In his speech titled “Flooded Gates of Corruption,” Lacson said Congress appropriated ₱1.19 trillion for the DPWH’s flood control management programs from 2011 to 2025. Over ₱1 trillion was allocated in the past three years alone, making up 53% of the total funds for the past 15 years, he said.

Given this allocation, the expectation was for low-lying communities to be flood-free during heavy rains, he said. Yet, he added, when recent typhoons struck the country, the floods swept away the multibillion-peso infrastructures that were newly completed.

It’s “like a piece of cake,” Lacson said in describing the corruption involved. “Funds for a specific project are divided, shares vary depending on greed—big parts swallowed by corrupt operators both from the public and private sectors, leaving only crumbs for actual implementation,” he said.

According to Lacson, infrastructure projects are usually subject to taxes and automatic insurances such as 5% value added tax, 2% withholding tax, 1% for bonds and insurances, and 1% for material testing. There is also an 8% allowable profit for contractors.

“But this is not where this stops,” he said in Filipino. “The budget is further butchered for kickbacks, commissions, standard operating procedures, and other terms made as shares for the corrupt.” 

How the cake is divided

From information received by Lacson and his team, this is the system used in dividing the anomalous infrastructure budget:

• 8–10% for the DPWH official, and it would be “lucky” if the district engineers agree to a 6% cut.
• An extra 2–3% share for the District Engineering Office (DEO) should there be an excess in the contractor’s profit. Computation is made on the contractor’s profit to allow for such an excess, so that they have something to collect. This is called “reseta” because the price was already written up and decided by the DEO.
• 5–6% for the members of the Bids and Awards Committee.
• 0.1% for the Commission on Audit.
• A passing-through or parking fee of 5–6% of the fund. This is considered the “royalty” or kickback given to the politician in control of the district where the project will be implemented
• A usual 20–25% for the funder.  

“Mr. President, it would be fortunate if the remaining share for the implementation of the project reaches 40%, or ₱40 million if the project costs ₱100 million,” Lacson said, adding that “there is an evident pattern of this nasty distribution of public funds among crooks.”

He said these findings are based on “case studies” that his team investigated in different parts of the country, particularly on the flood control issue.

According to Lacson, those getting cuts from the infrastructure budget know that “distinct” budget items are those in the General Appropriations Act (GAA), and awarded contracts with the same costs regardless of whether the project site is near or far.

“Distinct, because according to our informants in DPWH and confirmed by several contractors, this is coded in the budget for the benefit of the ‘owners’ of the project,” he said. 

He cited as example the “distinct” project in the Bulacan 1st District Engineering Office where, under the leadership of former district engineer Henry Alcantara and his successor, Brice Hernandez, each of 28 projects in 2024 cost ₱72 million.

Constant repair for ‘failed’ project 

Lacson identified “questionable” and “ghost” flood control projects that his team visited in the provinces of Pampanga, La Union, Bulacan and Oriental Mindoro.

He mentioned the “failed” flood control project in Candating, Arayat, Pampanga, which had undergone repair just last month and which Congress first allotted a ₱20-million budget for the construction/rehabilitation of slope protection along a section of the Pampanga River in 2018. But this section underwent repair in 2023 for ₱91.6 million and again in 2024, this time spending ₱91.8 million for the first phase and ₱91.4 million for the second phase.

“If the original construction cost was only ₱20 million in 2018, why did the repair cost balloon to 350% or ₱91 million in 2023, and another ₱183 million in 2024, or an overall increase of 815%?” he said.

He named Eddmari Construction and Trading as the contractor that bagged ₱278 million for these projects that needed constant repair.

“How can this [firm] with an unusual share of controversies—including being delisted as DHSUD (Department of Human Settlements and Urban Development) builder in 2023—be trusted to rebuild its own consistently collapsing project, which evidently comes with great cost and loss to the government?” the senator said.

He said that in the 2025 national budget, an additional ₱100 million was allocated for this same project but Malacañang had stopped the release of funds for it.

‘Extreme’ insertions

Lacson also cited flood control projects with “extreme” pork barrel and congressional insertions, such as those in Bauang River Basin in La Union, of which, in the proposed 2024 GAA, only ₱50 million was the allotment for each of two items in the Naguilian side and none for the Bauang side.

However, he said, when the 2024 national budget was passed, there were 10 items allotted for the Naguilian side for a whopping ₱967 million, while in the Bauang side, seven packages were allotted with the same budget of ₱89 million each, or ₱683 million from a zero-budget allocation in the President’s National Expenditure Program (NEP).

He said Silverwolves Construction Corp. cornered all of these projects. 

Lacson also mentioned flood control projects in the towns of Baco and Naujan in Oriental Mindoro that were the congressional projects of Agila (or Aksyon Gobyerno at Inisyatibo sa Larangang Lehislatura) with budget allocations of ₱807 million and ₱3.6 billion, respectively.

He said two projects of Agila located in Barangays Burbuli and San Jose were financed through unprogrammed funds.

“What I know is the process of using unprogrammed funds under the Special Purpose Fund is tedious… This is not easy to access because it requires: a) excess revenue collections, or b) new revenue collections, or c) those arising from new tax or non-tax sources, or d) approved loans for foreign-assisted projects,” Lacson said. 

“The requirements here are lengthy, Mr. President. It seems Mr. Congressman is extremely powerful,” he said.

‘Guni-guni’

Lacson cited a road dike construction project along Magasawang Tubig River at Sitio Dike, Barangay Apitong, in Naujan, which had been awarded to Elite General Contractor and Development Corp. for ₱192.99 million. He said that on the DPWH website, it was stated that this project had been completed.

But when his team reached the site, they found no dike project and were told by residents that there had been no construction of any project in the past year.

“Where is the ₱193 million fund for Sitio Dike in 2024? The team got the exact location because this is also consistent with the coordinates listed by the DPWH and the ‘Isumbong mo sa Pangulo’ website. Guni-guni o guni-guni?” he said.

There are also “ghost” projects in Bulacan, including that in Barangay Calero in Malolos City where the ₱77-million construction of river bank protection by Wawao Builders was tagged as completed in October 2024, according to Lacson.

But upon reaching the project site, the senator’s team saw a flood control structure still being built. They were told by residents that no construction occurred in 2024.

Lacson said a group in the 1st DEO in Bulacan is a known “syndicate” of substandard and “ghost” projects. He said its “modus” is to borrow the license of constructors, which it uses to implement projects or process documents to show that a project has been completed.

“My office is willing and ready to provide the names of the members of this well-organized syndicate inside the Bulacan DEO, including probable witnesses to testify against them, if and when the concerned authorities open a formal investigation into these morally wicked schemes to defraud our people of their hard-earned taxpayer money,” he declared.

Lacson said his team has also visited flood control projects in Bicol, Davao Peninsula, Western Visayas and Central Mindanao, and that they are validating their findings for the next hearings and investigation.

He said there are engineers who want to speak out as they have been forced to implement projects sent to their districts that they had no part in planning and that were not part of the NEP.

These projects came from the budget insertions of “funders” in Congress, he said.

Lacson said other people are ready to identify the corrupt officials behind flood control projects. “When a few good officials or remorseful men are willing to speak truth to power, they must be heard. They must be seen. They must be protected,” he said, adding:

“More than flood control, what the Filipino people need to see is greed control.”

Lacson’s colleagues, including Sen. Bam Aquino, congratulated him for his expose. 

On the floor, Sen. Francis Pangilinan asked why Public Works Secretary Manuel Bonoan is still in office. “My question on Tuesday is: Why has the public works secretary not yet resigned?” he said.