‘Let’s say you’re a contractor. You’d tell Zaldy, ‘I want P1 billion worth of projects.’ You will pay 20 percent, or P200 million.’
Submariner no more Navotas Rep. Toby Tiangco said escaping the curse of being underwater for most part of the year will not falter after the Department of Public Works and Highways consider the potential of a second flood gate in the city.
Photograph courtesy of Michelle Tiangco/IG
Operation 20/20 Veteran legislator Toby Tiangco (left) revealed to ‘Straight Talk’ hosts Chito Lozada (middle) and Teddy Montelibano that fugitive former House member Zaldy Co was the culprit in the Floodgate scandal, whom he claimed was selling projects at a rate of 20 percent of the budget allocated for the structures.
Photograph by Yuko Shimomura for DAILY TRIBUNE
Navotas City Rep. Toby Tiangco finds himself balancing two equally urgent imperatives: supporting the campaign against corruption in infrastructure projects while addressing his constituents’ pressing need for effective flood-control measures.
The two objectives need not be at odds. Properly planned and well-executed infrastructure offers hope to a city that lies largely below sea level and has long struggled with chronic flooding.
As one of the countries frequently struck by typhoons, the Philippines endures recurring floods every rainy season, with coastal communities among the hardest hit from June to November.
Navotas, with a land area of just 10.69 square kilometers, remains one of the country’s most flood-prone cities, facing inundation year after year with every major downpour.
Speaking during DAILY TRIBUNE’s Straight Talk program, Navotas Representative Toby Tiangco said that he has continued to fight for a budget to help fund the remedies being used to circumvent the effects of natural calamities.
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“We used to be flooded 160 days a year. Even when the sun was shining, as long as it was high tide, we were flooded. That was where we came from. We have already resolved the flooding caused by high tides, as long as the flood gate does not break down,” the solon said.
Tiangco has spent his entire political career through various posts under the city of Navotas, being elected its vice mayor in 1998, subsequently being handed the reins as the city’s mayor after protests were raised against then-mayor Cipriano Bautista, until the latter subsequently died in 2001.
The solon was officially voted in for the post in 2004, running consecutive terms up to 2010, when he served as Navotas’ representative in Congress.
While the ongoing budget controversy stemmed from what is now termed the Floodgate scandal, the city’s redemption rests on the efficient use of a floodgate system.
During his political tenure, the Navotas flood control system was constructed along the Tullahan River in Barangay San Jose, helping reduce water levels by directing its flow to Manila Bay.
Over the years, the lone flood gate has been damaged multiple times, with Tiangco noting that the structure was poised for rehabilitation.
In the previous year, the Office of Civil Defense said that ongoing repairs at the Tangos-Tanza flood gate had caused severe flooding in the city.
To address the issue, the solon said that the Department of Public Works and Highways was reviewing the potential establishment of a second flood gate that could further shield residents from flooding.
For his part, Tiangco said that he was going to lobby at the House of Representatives for an additional budget to be allocated for the project, particularly as the national budget for 2027 is nearing deliberations.
Good gov’t stalwart
Tiangco has also been one of the vocal figures looking to combat corruption in the government through exposing the key figures he believed were involved in the multibillion-peso flood control scandal.
The solon said that the primary culprit in the entire scheme was none other than former congressman Zaldy Co, whom he claimed was selling projects at 20 percent of the budget allocated for the structures.
He said that he first came across the scheme when he was reelected to the lower house in 2022 after serving as mayor of Navotas from 2019 to 2022.
Though maintaining that it was Co orchestrating the crime, Tiangco said that he refused to believe that former House Speaker Martin Romualdez did not know that the issue was taking place.
The lawmaker further added that the scheme did not just involve lawmakers, noting that even contractors were contacting the former Ako Bicol representative for project commissions.
“Let’s say you’re a contractor. You’d tell Zaldy, ‘I want P1 billion worth of projects.’ You will pay 20 percent, or P200 million. Then you decide what projects you want, and they will insert them into the budget,” Tiangco alleged.
To avoid detection of the scheme through the budget, he said the scheme was placed under the National Expenditure Program, a budget submitted directly by the executive branch.
Beyond resolving flooding locally and the overflow of irregularities in government, Tiangco has been a consistent figure in ensuring that both are convincingly resolved.
