Flood control projects worth more than ₱800 billion have been implemented since 2022 without substantial coordination with the River Basin Control Office (RBCO), the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) said on Wednesday, Aug. 20.

DPWH Secretary Manuel Bonoan made the admission after Senator Rodante Marcoleta questioned whether the agency’s regional and district engineers had consulted the RBCO, which is mandated to integrate projects into a national master plan.

“Unfortunately, Your Honor, this is one of the challenges we have to face. I admit, Mr. Chairman, that we have not had any significant coordination at this point in time,” Bonoan said.

Created under Executive Order No. 510 in 2006, the RBCO is tasked to consolidate and integrate river basin projects and prepare a master plan in coordination with DPWH and other agencies.

Marcoleta warned that DPWH projects could end up ineffective without such integration, stressing that funds continue to be released while the office responsible for ensuring coordination remains idle.

“In other words, this is the key to everything. The DPWH keeps building projects, the DBM keeps releasing funds, but the very office responsible for consolidating and integrating all these flood control efforts has been idle. You do not even consult them, and you hardly even know each other,” he said.

“Nothing will come out of all these projects. This only proves the serious lack of coordination on your part,” Marcoleta added.

Senator Mark Villar, who once headed the DPWH, underscored the importance of master plans to prevent the displacement of flooding problems.

“There are master plans. Some of them are foreign-funded, and some are basin-specific. What matters is full support and accountability,” Villar said, stressing the need for stronger monitoring to curb substandard projects.

Villar likewise echoed President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s concern over defective flood works discovered during site inspections.

“That is very unacceptable that we have substandard projects,” he said.

The Senate’s budget monitoring office reported that funding for flood control from July 2022 to May 2025 reached ₱849 billion, even as recurring flooding continues to affect many areas.

Bonoan said the President’s concerns point to accountability issues rather than contradictions in DPWH’s reporting.

“While thousands of projects are reflected as completed, our citizens continue to experience recurring flooding. This is not a contradiction but a call for deeper accountability,” he said.

Earlier, Marcos revealed that 20 percent of the ₱545-billion budget for flood control went to only 15 contractors, vowing in his State of the Nation Address last month to hold those behind anomalous projects accountable.