Marcos vows to jail personalities in flood mess before Christmas

PRESIDENT Ferdinand R. Marcos, Jr. on Thursday vowed to jail those implicated in the multibillion-peso flood control scandal before Christmas, as his administration moves to restore public trust and enforce accountability in government infrastructure projects.

Amid growing calls for accountability, Mr. Marcos said the government is ensuring investigations will lead to airtight legal cases to prevent perpetrators from getting out on a technicality. He, however, assured they will be penalized by yearend.

“They won’t have a Merry Christmas. Before Christmas, they will be jailed,” he said in mixed English and Filipino during a briefing.

Since exposing the kickback scheme in his State of the Nation Address, the government has launched the sumbongsapangulo.ph website, which has so far received over 20,000 citizen reports on questionable flood control projects, as well as investigations that uncovered alleged collusion to siphon off billions of public funds from Public Works projects.

The findings have prompted both the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) and the Independent Commission for Infrastructure (ICI) to recommend the filing of criminal and administrative cases against 37 Public Works officials, lawmakers and contractors.

The Anti-Money Laundering Council has also frozen P6.3 billion in assets, with the Solicitor General preparing forfeiture proceedings to recover funds for public use. Bid-rigging and manipulation cases could yield penalties between P3 billion and P5 billion, according to Mr. Marcos.

The government is also considering the use of artificial intelligence (AI) to oversee flood control projects, as authorities investigate alleged irregularities in public infrastructure programs, according to the President.

“We have seen the latest smart technology where we use AI. The AI checks the process of the contracts. If something isn’t right, it will be flagged,” he said.

The President added that the administration intends to deploy all available tools, including AI and other smart technologies, to inspect and monitor the execution of government projects.

Due to the flood control scandal, the Philippine economy slumped, with investor confidence shaken and public spending on infrastructure coming under intense scrutiny.

Meanwhile, Senator Panfilo “Ping” M. Lacson on Thursday said that he would no longer allow former Party-list Rep. Elizaldy S. Co to attend the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee’s next hearing via Zoom.

“I didn’t push through with the initial plan to invite him (Mr. Co) via Zoom,” he said in a statement.

Earlier, the senator said that he is eyeing to invite the former congressman to the committee hearing via Zoom, noting that Mr. Co can attend the hearing virtually within a Philippine embassy.

The Senate Blue Ribbon panel is set to resume its hearing in irregular flood mitigation projects, after the reappointment of Senator Panfilo “Ping” M. Lacson as its chair. The next hearing is set for Nov. 14.

Mr. Lacson said that attending the hearing virtually may be used by Mr. Co to provide testimony that lacks probative value.

“The hearing might afford him a platform to say anything he wants even with no probative value and worse for propaganda purposes only without any accountability for at least possible contempt citation,” he added.

In a previous panel hearing, a former Public Works engineer implicated congressmen in benefiting from funding meant for local flood control projects.

A former aide of Mr. Co also claimed that he was part of a team that would deliver bags of money, which they referred to as basura (garbage), to the two congressmen. Both denied these allegations.

The senator said that Mr. Co’s counsel had informed him that the former lawmaker was in the US, undergoing medication.

“He asked to be excused from tomorrow’s hearing,” Mr. Lacson added.

The upper chamber is investigating irregularities in multibillion-peso flood control projects, following reports that lawmakers and officials received kickbacks from infrastructure funds allocated since 2022. — Chloe Mari A. Hufana and Adrian H. Halili