In what many have dubbed the most theatrical portion of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s 2025 State of the Nation Address (SONA), the Chief Executive erupted into righteous indignation over the grotesque rot of corruption in government-funded flood control projects. He lamented ghost projects, kickbacks, and substandard construction with righteous fury, as if he weren’t the President for the past three years.
Now, he demands an audit, a public list, and even threatens to veto the 2026 budget if it isn’t aligned with his vision or the NEP (National Expenditure Program). He promised accountability and a full audit. Nevertheless, it would have been commendable had it not come three years too late. The question in the minds of every Filipino: Where was his spine in 2023? Or 2024?
“Guni-Guni” Flood Control Projects?
During the SONA, it was nothing short of surreal and somewhat puzzling to watch lawmakers rise in applause as Marcos Jr. condemned corruption after the fact, especially when it happened on his watch. Three years of unchecked fund disbursement? Three years of floods that still drown Metro Manila and submerge provincial towns to this day? And yet, here he was on July 28, 2025, throwing a presidential tantrum like a man discovering the mess he himself presided over. What a political spectacle/circus, applause included. Goodness!
Worse, many of these projects were supposed to address climate resilience, an urgent concern as the Philippines faces an intensifying typhoon season and rising sea levels. Instead, we have flood control projects that don’t control floods because most, if not all, don’t exist, only in the ledgers and imagination of contractors.
So, which is it? Did Marcos Jr.’s government hand out checks as if no one noticed that the flood control projects were nowhere to be found, or perhaps the problem is more insidious: everyone noticed, but no one was allowed to speak? Is silence when it comes to corruption the new form of patriotism now under this government?
Moreover, Marcos Jr. even threatened to reject the 2026 budget if it isn’t aligned with the NEP. That sounds bold, until you remember that the 2023, 2024, and 2025 budgets were also approved under his administration. So what changed? Public outrage? Or the realization that massive corruption shrouding his government has already begun to unravel? With such acts, is Marcos Jr. offering leadership? Or is it damage control with a megaphone?
Conclusion
If the President truly means what he says, then publish the complete list of the 5,500 projects. Name the regions, contractors, and government officials who signed off on the funds. Involve the people in the audit. And start filing criminal cases/charges, not just firing press releases.
Floods come and go. But corruption, when institutionalized, becomes a flood without warning, silently eating away the foundation of the Republic. The question now is: will Marcos Jr. truly drain the swamp, or merely redirect the current toward another dam of deception? Let’s see!
Source: The Lobbyist
https://www.thelobbyist.biz/perspectives/article-details/prime%20insight/the-phantom-flood-control-projects-build-better-ghosts
