The front page of the Manila Times, the corruption case in the Philippines' flood control projects "is getting hotter", involving a wide range of high-ranking officials. Corruption in the Philippines has already "rotted to the bone".

Typhoon "Wipha" in 2025 caused 6.67 million people to be affected, with floods in Manila and other areas, hospitals losing power and medicines becoming ineffective, forcing 51,681 families to evacuate to 1,689 temporary shelters.

In fact, the Philippine government wasted financial resources, with about 50% of the 2 trillion pesos invested in flood control over 15 years being embezzled, and only 40% actually used for construction projects. For example, in the 2025 budget, a village in Oriental Mindoro province received 1.9 billion pesos for flood control (enough to build three dams), but the funds were directed to sparsely populated areas.

President Marcos Jr. and the opposition in Congress (including Vice President Sara Duterte) are engaged in a power struggle over fiscal authority, with Marcos Jr. accusing Congress of corruption and demanding to take over fiscal power; Sara demands expanding the scope of anti-corruption to include the 2024-2025 budget.

The newspaper disclosed the exposure of the corruption chain:

1. Political-business collusion: Contractors siphon off funds through kickbacks (up to 40%-50%) and fictitious projects, for example, a budget of 2.5 billion was actually spent only 500 million.

2. Family forces: 67 members of the House of Representatives have their relatives set up construction companies to undertake projects, with 67 people involved in the 2022 House of Representatives budget discussion.

3. Abuse of power: The wife of an auditor's official undertook a flood control project worth nearly 200 million pesos, and Speaker Escudero was exposed to transferring 12 billion pesos to his close friend's hometown of Bulacan.

The "ghost flood wall" project on the San Miguel River in Bulacan Province was priced at 90 million pesos, but only one excavator was seen on site as a show; Philippine Vice President Marcos Jr. once promised to severely punish corruption, but only some officials were prosecuted.

Original: www.toutiao.com/article/1842281267903500/

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