Billions vanish into projects on paper, while Filipinos are left to suffer—and their resilience turned into an excuse for inaction.
Every monsoon season, the Philippines braces itself for flooding—not merely as nature's wrath, but as a painful reminder of broken promises and invisible progress. Years and billions of pesos have cascaded into flood control projects, yet the Filipino’s daily turmoil continues unmitigated. What's fueling this disconnect between funding and actual results?
From July 2022 to May 2025, P545.6 billion was allocated for flood control projects across the country. With that much money, Filipinos expected to see improvements in drainage systems, dikes, and river defenses. Yet when the rains come, the streets are still submerged, and families are left wading through floods. President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. himself revealed that P545 billion worth of projects are ongoing, but what shocked many is that 20 percent of that—over P100 billion—went to just 15 contractors. This raises questions about fairness, efficiency, and whether these projects are actually reaching communities that need them.
Senator Ping Lacson has also shed light on how corruption eats into project funds, explaining that bribes and kickbacks are often included in costs, leaving only around 40 percent of the budget for the actual construction. This helps explain why people see unfinished dikes, crumbling flood ways, or sometimes nothing at all, since many of these are ghost projects that exist only on paper. Bulacan has been one of the areas most often flagged for suspicious spending. Despite being one of the most flood-prone provinces, residents there still face the same struggles year after year, showing how mismanagement hurts the very communities these projects are supposed to protect.
According to a 2023 report from the Commission on Audit (COA), several Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) flood control projects were delayed, incomplete, or not fully functional despite receiving full funding. Some structures were either substandard or failed to address the specific flooding issues they were meant to solve. This reflects not just inefficiency, but a recurring pattern of projects that look better on paper than in reality.
What ordinary Filipinos continue to see is a painful contrast between the huge sums being announced and the reality on the ground. Massive allocations do not automatically mean effective solutions, especially when corruption and inefficiency weaken the actual projects. Transparency is also lacking, as people have no easy way to check if projects are completed or effective. Many flood control structures that do exist are of poor quality or unfinished, and the fact that so much of the budget is controlled by a handful of contractors only makes matters worse.
Adding to the frustration, President Marcos has described severe flooding as part of the country’s “new normal,” both in public interviews and speeches such as his State of the Nation Address. While the statement was meant to acknowledge the reality of climate change and its impacts, many Filipinos felt disheartened. For communities that have been waiting for real flood control solutions, calling it the “new normal” sounded like an acceptance of failure. Instead of reassurance, the statement was seen by many as a resignation—that people should simply learn to live with floods rather than expect real protection from the government. Social media was filled with reactions ranging from disappointment to anger, with some pointing out that resilience should not be romanticized, and that billions in funds should have already translated to visible solutions.
What makes the situation even more heartbreaking is how the government leans on the so-called “Filipino resilience.” Time and again, citizens are praised for their ability to smile through the floods, to rebuild homes out of scraps, and to wade through waist-deep waters as though it is a badge of honor. But resilience is not meant to be a substitute for accountability. When leaders celebrate resilience while neglecting to fix broken systems, it becomes clear that this trait is being abused. Instead of giving people the protection they deserve, the system forces them to endure and survive in conditions that should have been prevented in the first place.
Every rainy season, Filipinos are left asking the same question: where did all the money go? Billions are poured into flood control projects, but the results are hardly visible in everyday life. The problem is not the lack of funding, but the lack of accountability in making sure these projects are done right. Until corruption and mismanagement are dealt with seriously, floods will continue to drown not just our streets, but also our hopes for real change.
