Liberal Party’s Tañada calls for fact-finding body on flood control projects

Gabriela Baron·26 August 2025, 6:11 pm·1 min read

Text size

Liberal Party’s Tañada calls for fact-finding body on flood control projects — Where is the outrage? This is the Philippines in the eyes of many, struggling through floods, if not traffic. In the capital city, motor vehicles and stranded passengers wade through flooded streets after some rains on Friday, 22 August. With characteristic humor, Filipinos manage to laugh at discomforts as shown in these photos, even as revelations continue to be made on anomalous flood control projects by the Department of Public Works and Highways, its contractors, with alleged imprimatur from some local and national leaders.
Photographs by Toto Lozano and John Carlo Magallon for DAILY TRIBUNE

Liberal Party President Erin Tañada urged President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. to create a commission to investigate anomalous flood control projects in the country.

"The President can do this by an executive order, creating a commission to investigate. We've seen this before," Tañada said in a television report.

He cited the Agrava Commission, or the Agrava Fact-Finding Board, initiated by President Ferdinand E. Marcos in October 1983 to probe the assassination of opposition senator Benigno Aquino Jr. Marcos Sr. appointed Judge Corazon Juliano-Agrava as chairperson of the board.

Tañada also mentioned the Feliciano Fact-Finding Commission in 2003, which investigated graft and corruption in the military.

"What is important is that the commission is embodied by subpoena powers so that they can ask for documents. Because without subpoena powers, any commission that you put out will not really be able to get to the bottom of the story," he said.

"So the President can do that, or the President can also ask his allies if they are really serious against corruption, immediately fast-track a law creating this commission to look into the corruption regarding these flood control programs," he added.

The Department of Public Works and Highways is currently verifying around 400 projects from 2022 to 2025, including those from the previous administration.

The Senate Blue Ribbon Committee on 19 August opened its inquiry into alleged anomalies in multibillion-peso flood control projects, with senators citing reports of "ghost projects," questionable works, and the concentration of contracts among a few favored contractors.