Where’s the master plan?
A master plan that addresses only rainfall and ignores garbage, housing and encroachment is not a comprehensive program that would respond to the worsening weather conditions yearly.
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A master plan that addresses only rainfall and ignores garbage, housing and encroachment is not a comprehensive program that would respond to the worsening weather conditions yearly.
A year has passed since Floodgate broke open. The whistleblowers spoke before the Senate, and a string of chamber presidents fell and rose as the political feud dividing the nation deepened.
Trillions of pesos in Unprogrammed Appropriations (UA), insertions and amendments were tracked, argued over, and half-explained.
Through it all, one fact has not changed: there is still no master plan for flood control. Nothing for Bulacan, Pampanga, and Metro Manila as the habagat --- as if taking its cue from a divine judge — keeps reminding these regions of the need for retribution over the pilferage of public funds.
What is emerging are separate, disconnected plans which are themselves a scandal inside the scandal. Quezon City has its own plan, while other localities draft theirs.
Each city guards its patch of ground, but water does not respect city limits. The numbers tell the rest.
During the last year of the Duterte administration, the anomalous flood control projects were few. In the 19th Congress, under the Marcos administration, they grew to something else. The UA climbed into the trillions and so did the inserted pet projects.
In the UA, real infrastructure paid the price. The Metro Manila subway and the Clark-to-Calamba railway, which would have moved the economy forward, were delayed to make way for the flood control racket.
The moment of truth came in 2025, as public fury over the scandal grew, leading the government to strip P253 billion from flood control funding.
This year, the floods came harder, because nothing had been fixed in the meantime. The government has since restored P107 billion for flood control quick fixes that may ease some of the flooding in some streets but it is not enough. It will not fix the country, because the country still has no plan to follow.
Metro Manila alone churns out millions of kilos of garbage every day, 60 percent of which is never collected.
This ends up in the canals and esteros, then jams up pumping stations before poisoning Manila Bay. Add to this the roughly 6,000 families living beside and on top of the waterways, as well as the natural waterways built over and put to other use.
A master plan that addresses only rainfall and ignores the garbage, housing and encroachment is not a comprehensive program that would respond to the worsening weather conditions each year.
In Luzon, Pampanga, Bulacan, and Laguna go underwater year after year. Pampanga Governor Lilia Pineda has said it plainly: There is still no master plan — and there still isn’t one based on the proposed 2027 national budget now before Congress.
This lesson belongs beside the 2013 Priority Development Assistance Fund jurisprudence. The Supreme Court clearly ruled that an unbridled discretion in public spending invites corruption, and Floodgate proves it.
An unplanned program is easier to loot than a structured undertaking.
The country does not need another ad hoc commission. It needs one map that shows where the water should go, and who is responsible when it doesn’t.
