By TONY LOPEZ
His State of the Nation Address (SONA) of July 28, 2025 showed President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr.’s mettle to do a major house cleaning in his governance, tackle corruption, deliver basic services, and improve meaningfully the life of the majority of 115 million Filipinos, between now and 2028.
BBM showed that boldness on Aug. 18, 2025 when he called a press conference, demonstrated how to use his new website, “sumbongsapangulo.ph” (to expose and run after bad contractors and grafters in government), and narrated with remarkable candidness that his administration had allotted P545.64 billion for 9,855 flood control from July 2022 to May 2025, his first three years as president.
Twenty percent (18% actually), or P100 billion, went to just 15 contractors, out of 2,409 accredited contractors. BBM said 6,021 projects worth P350 billion do not specify the exact type of flood control being built. Many projects, in different locations, have exactly the same contract cost; 50 projects have the same P150 million cost. “It’s impossible for one barangay, even if they are next to each other, to have the same exact project, the same exact amount, with exactly the same contractor!”, BBM protested.
Sen. Panfilo Lacson explains that having flood control projects with remarkably uniform project cost –like P72 million, P96 million, P144 million, or P150 million—despite their intrinsic differences in actual cost, location, and engineering—is a code word for who the contractor should be and who is the funder, congressman or senator. The same coded amount is the money to be shared or stolen.
The top contractors and their owners/managers: 1. Legacy Construction Corporation (Alex Abelido, president); 2. Alpha and Omega General Contractor and Development Corporation (Cezarah Discaya); 3. St. Timothy Construction Corporation (Maria Roma Angeline Discaya Rimando, owner and related to Cezarah Discaya); 4. QM Builders (Allan Quirante); 5. EGB Construction Corporation (Ernie Baggao, proprietor); 6. Topnotch Catalyst Builders Inc.(Eumir Villanueva, president); 7. Centerways Construction and Development Inc. (Lawrence Lubiano, president); 8. Sunwest, Inc.(Aderma Angelie Alcazar, president-CEO); 9. Hi-Tone Construction and Development Corporation (Edgar Acosta of Legaspi, Albay, president); 10. Triple 8 Construction and Supply Inc.(Wilfredo Natividad, owner-GM); 11. Royal Crown Monarch Construction and Supplies Corporation (Romeo C. Miranda of Tarlac, president); 12. Wawao Builders (Mark Allan Arevalo, GM); 13. MG Samidan Construction (Marjorie Samidan, president; Kliff Samidan, treasurer); 14. L.R. Tiqui Builders Inc. (Luisito Tiqui, president); and 15. Road Edge Trading and Development Services (Ryan Willie Uy, proprietor).
Rappler reports that in previous years, Legacy, EGB, Sunwest, Hi-Tone, LR Tiqui and Road Edge received “unsatisfactory” or “poor” ratings as contractors. Yet, Sunwest got 78 flood control contracts worth P10.1 billion (it is linked to top congressman-contractor Zaldy Co who now says he divested from it); Legacy 132 projects, P9.6 billion (other reports puts Abelido’s contracts at over P20 billion after 25 years in construction); EGB 97 projects, P7.98 billion, with several projects having a uniform cost of P147.75 million.
Meanwhile, Alpha & Omega has 106 flood control projects worth P7.73 billion; St. Timothy, 105 projects, P7.32 billion; and QM Builders 97 projects, P7.77 billion, including four flood control projects in Talisay, Cebu, with a uniform project cost of P144.75 million.
At the Blue Ribbon hearing on Aug. 19, 2025, Chair Sen. Rodante Marcoleta quoted BBM as noting, “a mismatch between the most flood-prone areas—Pampanga, Nueva Ecija, Pangasinan, Tarlac, Bulacan, Metro Manila, Maguindanao, North Cotabato, Oriental Mindoro, and Ilocos Norte—and the top 10 provinces with the highest number of flood control projects by the DPWH—Bulacan, 668 projects; Cebu, 414; Isabela, 341; Pangasinan, 313; Pampanga, 292; Albay, 273; Leyte, 262; Tarlac, 258; Camarines Sur, 252; Ilocos Norte, 224 flood control projects.”
Only four of the ten flood-prone provinces have flood control projects, said Marcoleta, implying the provinces awarded with flood control projects did not deserve the flood control money and leading to premeditated plunder with DPWH complicit because it provided the money. Senator Erwin Tulfo calls it “pagnanakaw to the max” (maximum robbery).
Sen. Sherwin Gatchalian estimates that the government spent on flood control, P1.4 trillion, during 2022-2025, almost three times BBM’s P545 billion figure, and 22% of the 2025 national government budget of P6.32 trillion—with no results to show.
Senator Marcoleta has his own figure of the actual budget for flood control, from July 2022 to May 2025—P849 billion. For 2026, BBM is proposing a P274 billion budget for flood control, raising its flood control spending to P1.12 trillion—P849 billion in three years, as estimated by Marcoleta, plus P274 billion for 2026.
The DPWH 2025 annual budget is P881 billion, almost double its 2019 budget of P454.75 billion, but down from P1.088 trillion in 2025 and P1.239 trillion in 2024. The P881 billion (including P274 billion for flood control) is 2.8x the P315.5 billion 2026 Department of Health budget.
Secretary Manuel Bonoan admits that in 2025, Congress inserted P450 billion worth of (mostly flood control) projects into DPWH’s budget, “projects not vetted in the field but which are now in the (budget) law.” Bonoan says he then went to President Marcos to complain, triggering the presidential exposé of Aug. 18 and the “isumbong” website. BBM’s idea: for the public, particularly businessmen and journalists, to get involved in exposing the venalities in flood control contracts.
Senator Lacson says P1 trillion of the P2 trillion budget for flood control in the past 15 years was stolen.
The P1 trillion is enough to rescue five million Filipinos from poverty, enough to buy more than twice the classrooms shortage of 165,000 units, and more than enough to ensure yearly the health of 93 million of 115 million Filipinos.
Stop poverty, and stop the miseducation of the Filipino, stop the deaths of 300,000 Filipinos yearly due to poor health. Abolish flood control.