One of the co-chairmen of the House Infrastructure Committee (infra comm), Manila 3rd district Rep. Joel Chua said Tuesday, Sept. 2 that the flood control projects controversy could be traced to alleged budget insertions that proliferated during the administration of former president Rodrigo Duterte.

In his opening statement during the hearing of the infra comm, Chua reminded his fellow House of Representatives members that the Commission on Audit (COA) had issued reports between 2017 and 2020 on the thousands of projects that were either delayed, defective, or never implemented at all.

The House leader said these projects cost "hundreds of billions" in public funds.

“Noong 2018, iniulat ng Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism (PCIJ) ang pagkakasangkot ng ilang malalaking contractor sa mga flood control projects na na-delay o hindi natapos,” he noted.

(In 2018, the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism reported the involvement of several major contractors in flood control projects that were delayed or left unfinished.)

The Infra Comm, composed of the Committees on Public Accounts, on Good Government and Public Accountability, and on Public Works and Highways, formally began its probe into anomalous flood control projects and other infrastructure programs Tuesday.

Chua, chairman of good government panel, insisted that the flood control scam wasn't new, and that Congress had even confirmed the pattern in back in 2019.

“Noong 2019 naman, mismong House Committee on Appropriations ang nakatuklas na maraming flood control projects ang prone sa tinatawag na budget insertion – mga proyektong isinisingit sa pondo nang walang malinaw na konsultasyon o batayan. Ayon sa kanilang ulat, umabot sa bilyon-bilyong piso ang halaga ng mga proyektong isinisingit, na nagbukas ng malawak na puwang para sa katiwalian at maling paggamit ng kaban ng bayan,” he explained.

(In 2019, it was the House Committee on Appropriations itself that discovered that many flood control projects were prone to what is called budget insertion—projects added into the budget without clear consultation or justification. According to their report, the value of these inserted projects reached billions of pesos, opening wide opportunities for corruption and misuse of public funds.)

Chua said the flood control scam was further validated by no less than the country’s chief executive at the time.

“At noong 2020, mismong inamin ng dating pangulo (Duterte) na talamak ang mga ghost projects sa iba’t ibang rehiyon ng bansa (And in 2020, the former president [Duterte] himself admitted that ghost projects were rampant in various regions of the country),” Chua said.

“Sa madaling salita, hindi bago ang problemang ito. Ito ay problemang namana, naipon at napabayaan – at ngayon, lumulutang na parang sugat na matagal nang hindi ginagamot (In other words, this problem is not new. It is a problem that was inherited, accumulated, and neglected—and now, it’s surfacing like a wound that has long gone untreated),” he stressed.

The Manila lawmaker said that part of the mess was misfeasance in project execution.

“Nagkaroon ng kapabayaan o misfeasance sa pagpapatupad ng mga proyektong hindi dumaan sa konsultasyon, maayos na bidding process, o masusing pag-aaral – ito ang dahilan kung bakit may mga proyektong mababa ang kalidad at hindi kapaki-pakinabang sa mga mamamayan,” Chua said.

(There was negligence or misfeasance in the implementation of projects that did not go through consultation, proper bidding processes, or thorough study—this is why there are projects of poor quality and little benefit to the public.)

“Nagkaroon din ng katiwalian o malfeasance sa pagtala ng mga ghost projects na hindi kailanman binuo ngunit patuloy na kumakain ng pondo (There was also corruption or malfeasance in the recording of ghost projects that were never built but continue to consume public funds),” he said.