President Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr. on Monday defended the flood control project of the government, saying that it was overwhelmed by the amount of rain dumped by severe tropical storm Kristine.

"Many people say, also I see in the newspaper, I hear on the radio, television, where are the flood controls? The flood controls were there; it was just overwhelmed," he said. 

According to state weather bureau PAGASA, Kristine poured over two months of rain, or around 700 millimeters, in several areas of Luzon.

Marcos compared the numbers with the amount of rain tropical storm Ondoy dropped, which is around 300 to 400 millimeters of rainfall.

"The flood control that we did was for floods like Ondoy. This is new. Talk to the flood victims; [go to] those places where the land collapsed; it just happened now; it has never happened in their entire lives, in the entire history of those places where the land collapsed because the water was so big," he said.

Marcos also attributed the extreme weather conditions due to climate change.

"Maybe flood used to happen before here but not this big. Times have really changed. So the climate change that we are talking about… we are already seeing it," he said.

"We don't need to read the reports or studies of scientists anymore. We already know how severe the effects of climate change will be," he added. 

In his third State of the Nation Address, Marcos boasted 5,500 accomplished flood control projects, which have now come under scrutiny.