Blood on crooks‘ hands

It has happened again. The flash flood brought by typhoon “Tino“ was just the latest in a string of reminders that, as the country bickers over flood control projects, the worsening weather situation will inflict punishments more painful than before.

The coverups and obfuscations that are happening crash into the open, confounding those in government who have masterminded the theft of public funds over the years, which worsened during the term of the incumbent, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.

In the past three years, more than P1 trillion was lost to projects that would have mitigated the effects of the onslaught of rains, which have grown more frightening by the year.

The death toll in Cebu, at 49 of about 85 as of Wednesday night, was primarily caused by residents who were caught in the sudden flood surge in their communities, particularly in low-lying barangays and near rivers.

Rivers such as the Mananga overflowed, inundating nearby barangays, with water reaching the second floor of some homes, while vehicles were swept away.

The situation in Cebu, which Gov. Pam Baricuatro described as unprecedented, was also unmatched in the misery it caused, as electricity, water supply and communications were lost at the most critical moments.

Baricuatro lamented that the effects of the disaster would have been diminished had the P26 billion in flood control funds for Cebu not been mismanaged.

“We have seen projects here in the province, I should say, ghost projects,” according to Baricuatro, in the backdrop of the rising number of fatalities in her province.

Cebu’s capital is called the Queen City in reference to being second only to Metro Manila in development. Yet the perverted annual budgets have stunted growth, mirroring the country’s failure to realize its full potential.

According to the governor, the P26 billion in allocations for Cebu resulted in either substandard or non-existent infrastructure.

Based on Marcos’ own figures, the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) has squandered P545 billion on flood control, which some civil works experts said was enough to build a wall around the entire archipelago twice over.

An internal audit, after the rot became impossible to hide, revealed thousands of substandard, poorly documented, and outright nonexistent projects.

The same man who bragged in his 2025 State of the Nation Address about completing over 5,500 flood control projects, only to inspect later a P55.7-million “river wall” in Bulacan that was nothing but air and excuses, shoulders the direct responsibility.

In the 2025 budget, he vetoed a token P29 billion from the bloated P450-billion insertions in the DPWH budget.

He signed the rest into law, greenlighting the very pork barrel that turned flood control projects into cash cows.

His allies in Congress and the Senate, including even partylist reps like Elizaldy Co, funneled billions to favored firms, which cornered the contracts, resulting in a buildup of the consequences of greed.

The human cost is unforgivable as monsoon rains and storms inundate towns, killing dozens, displacing hundreds of thousands and erasing livelihoods.

Marcos blurted out, “Mahiya naman kayo!” in front of Congress while shielding the system that gave birth to the scam: unprogrammed allocations, which were the conduit for the discretionary funds.

The hypocrisy of it all oozes out of the Palace, and it is costing the lives of the innocent.