After a prolonged period of waffling by his predecessor, Public Works and Highways Secretary Vince Dizon acknowledged there is no integrated master plan for flood control.
At a Senate Blue Ribbon Committee hearing, Senator Risa Hontiveros noted the Quezon City government had stated that of 331 national flood control projects from 2022 to 2025, only two were coordinated with the local government.
“Some projects, instead of reducing flooding, ended up causing bigger floods on roads, streets, houses, offices, and even schools. There are also alleged ghost projects that cannot be located by the LGU up to now,” Hontiveros said.
She asked Secretary Dizon, “Does the DPWH follow a single master plan in implementing each flood control project?”
“There’s none,” Dizon replied, without batting an eye.
“There isn’t even a plan. As I’ve mentioned, every time we conduct an inspection, the first thing I ask on-site — when I speak with the contractor, subcontractor, or foreman — is to show me the plan. In almost all cases, they cannot show us any plan,” Dizon said.
“As I’ve said, even a small house needs a plan before you can build it. All the more should these flood control projects, worth hundreds of millions, have proper plans. But they cannot show any, which is why this is part of our ongoing investigation — why this is being allowed and how so many of these projects managed to slip through,” Dizon said.
He said the latest flood control master plan he knew of was from 2013. Another master plan is being drafted by the Japan International Cooperation Agency and the World Bank, he added.
Both plans are only for Metro Manila, Dizon said.
In 2024, then DPWH secretary Manuel Bonoan acknowledged the country did not have an integrated flood control master plan.
In August, Malacañang said a P351-billion flood control master plan prepared during the presidency of Benigno Aquino III was not turned over to the current government.