Disappointing DPWH

Among the biggest allocations in the proposed 2025 budget was the P257 billion proposed for anti-flood projects — funding that’s even bigger than that given to most agencies.

Only the Department of Health, Department of the Interior and Local Government, and the Department of National Defense have bigger funding than for flood mitigation.

In the recent Senate hearing on the deluge that happened during Typhoon “Carina”, it was found that more than P1 trillion had been poured into projects to free Metro Manila from the curse of being submerged yearly in flood water.

All efforts had gone to waste as Filipinos once again went through the ordeal of wading through a veritable water world during the recent heavy downpour.

It is, thus, dismaying that the government, according to Public Works and Highways Secretary Manuel Bonoan, does not even have a unified plan against flooding.

Even current programs are disorganized, something which Bonoan tried to pass off as 18 separate master plans, apparently a poor attempt at giving justice to the huge waste in the yearly budget.

Worse, the DPWH included President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. in the charade by including in his bragging list 5,521 completed flood projects during the State of the Nation Address (SoNA).

Bonoan admitted the cited projects were small temporary solutions. He described the number supplied to the President as “immediate relief projects for flood mitigation,” which is a euphemism for a patchwork solution.

The revelation made Senator Imee Marcos, the sister of the President, fume since the Chief Executive ate his words when, after the SoNA, “Carina” struck and caused massive flooding throughout Metro Manila.

Bonoan then fell into using a ridiculous excuse from his subordinates that made him look like a clown, claiming that 18 masterplans covering river basins are in various stages of development. He should have had the common sense to ask how can there be 18 unrelated projects that the DPWH can consider as masterplans each on their own.

When asked by senators if there is a grand masterplan that ties up all the mini masterplans, Bonoan said there is none but he cited a major project that will control flooding in Central Luzon.

Some of the senators, however, remembered that the project was already committed by Bonoan in a similar hearing last year and that it was supposed to start this year. However, Bonoan made excuses related to climate change, saying the actual start of what was termed the ultimate anti-flood project would be in 2027.

Listening to Bonoan fumble his way through the hearing was frustrating to those watching the Senate proceedings since there is no assurance from the DPWH that the next severe weather condition will not cost them anxiety, if not lives and properties.

The inability of DPWH officials to bring to the table a concrete plan to solve the problem of flooding gives credibility to the claims of some legitimate contractors that the apportioning of kickbacks is the main purpose of the several anti-flood projects.

When before, agriculture and road projects were the favorite sources of commissions for public officials and legislators, flood control projects appeared to have taken their place.

After the Supreme Court ruled the pork barrel system as unconstitutional, various ingenious ways were created through the collusion of Department if Budget and Management officials and legislators to include projects in the National Expenditure Program as legislative paybacks.

A masterplan would be farthest from the mind of grafters since it would mean that recurring percentages would be hard to squeeze out of centralized contracts.

Through a centralized program to mitigate flooding, the yearly scourge on Filipinos may stop along with halting the huge waste of people’s money each year on worthless projects used as the milking cow of public officials.