Historic Philippine Towns Face Worsening Floods Despite Billions Spent In Projects

(MENAFN- Khaleej Times) Nhoy Juliano is the president of the Mary the Queen Subdivision Homeowners' Association in Hagonoy town in Bulacan province in the Philippines. Unlike most villages, however, he leads a shrinking organisation, currently down to 50 households from its height of 200.

Mary the Queen Subdivision was marketed as a flood-free enclave and several of those who bought or built houses in the village were overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) who thought their families would have a safe community to live in. They were disappointed.

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“Our houses and our streets are now permanently flooded. The majority of our neighbours have given up and moved elsewhere. I am old. I do not have the ability to start over,” Juliano sighed, noting that much of the town of Hagonoy and neighbouring towns are exactly in the same boat.

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Hagonoy town in Bulacan province is as historic as any Philippine town can be. Its pre-colonial chieftain called Datu Magat Salamat (who also ruled the old Tondo District, now part of Manila) was among the nobility who fought against the Spaniards in 1587. Hagonoy has maintained its patriotic tradition through 300 years, serving as the stronghold of General Isidoro Torres during the Filipinos' revolution against Spain in the 1890s. It was Torres' army that was given the honour to conduct the victory parade in nearby Malolos, the birthplace of the First Philippine Republic.

No glory could be gleaned from Hagonoy's currently flooded streets, however, along with the adjacent towns of Paombong, Calumpit, Bulakan, and the now City of Malolos, once the Philippine capital.

Residents like Juliano said the country's greedy politicians and corrupt government engineers and contractors may have just killed Hagonoy and the other coastal towns in Bulacan and Pampanga provinces due to substandard flood control projects.

Bad to worse

Bulacan's First Engineering District, composed of the said towns and the municipality of Pulilan, is low-lying, a catch basin for runoffs from distant mountain ranges. High tides, land subsidence, and slow-receding backwater from Manila Bay and nearby river networks make it prone to severe tidal inundation and overflowing river dikes.

But original settlers treated their area's unique coastal and marine features as blessings, many of whom relied on fishing as their main source of livelihood. The district's mangrove areas were a major source of marine products for nearby Manila. But because of its proximity to the metropolis, its population has also ballooned to nearly 800,000 by 2020, who needed more houses and paved roads that constricted what once were natural water channels. It led to worsened flooding.

The politicians and government engineers pounced on the opportunity to introduce about 200 flood control projects along the district's coastal and riverine areas. Since the start of the Ferdinand Marcos Jr's presidency alone, P10 billion (Dh606 million) were spent on coastal defences, river control projects and dikes.

But instead of solving the problem, it worsened, leaving entire communities permanently underwater.

Unique adaptations

In order to get around, the residents of Hagonoy have invented a new mode of transportation: Tricycles with engines elevated chest high called“tikling,” able to ford flooded streets. Otherwise, boats have replaced cars and only municipal government trucks could bring in relief goods to the communities.

At the height of the monsoon-fed floods this month, 980 families or 23,334 individuals were evacuated throughout the district.

In July last year, residents held one of the most unique protest actions ever held in the Philippines. They marched through floods, holding placards that said:“We are tired of athletes' feet!” referencing their most common skin disease contracted from constantly wading in floodwaters.

Epicenter of infrastructure corruption

The birthplace of the republic is currently the center of intense national scrutiny that seeks answers as to why 200 flood control projects instead permanently submerged entire towns.

Inspections revealed that seawalls were improperly designed as "inland dikes," lacking resilience against Manila Bay's tides and waves. River protection projects are structurally compromised or built with watered-down, substandard materials. The P96.4 million (Dh5.84 million) river protection project in Barangay Bulusan and the P77.1 million (Dh4.67 million) flood mitigation structure in Barangay Frances exhibit premature concrete deterioration and inadequate soil compaction, failing entirely to hold back river back-flooding.

Philippine Senate investigations exposed systemic corruption lawmakers have characterized as a "grand robbery." Funds were systematically carved up into kickbacks, leaving the first district with ghost infrastructures, substandard projects and flooded towns.

Grand conspiracy, robbery

At the center of the scheme is the DPWH Bulacan 1st District Engineering Office, whose top officials orchestrated an internal profit-sharing ring. Former district engineer Henry Alcantara admitted to taking as much as 40 per cent of project funds in conspiracy with lawmakers and government contractors.

Alcantara's deputy, Brice Ericson Hernandez, confessed that every single infrastructure project in Bulacan since 2019 was deliberately made substandard due to forced kickbacks. Hernandez admitted that projects never met plan specifications because officials and external personalities demanded massive cuts from the budgets.

DPWH engineers Jaypee Mendoza and Paul Duya also admitted to taking a 20 per cent cut each from padded project allocations handed down to them by former DPWH undersecretary Roberto Bernardo.

The engineers' thievery was made possible by the cooperation of a tiny pool of favored contractors that rented out their names to ghost projects and submitted falsified accomplishment reports. They were Wawao Builders Corporation of Mark Allan Villamor Arevalo, who cornered 85 flood control projects in Bulacan worth P5 billion (Dh298 million); Alpha & Omega General Contractor by the couple Pacifico and Sarah Discaya, who admitted giving 10 to 25 per cent of project funds immediately after bids to politicians; St. Timothy Construction Corporation of Roma Angeline Rimando, responsible for the failing, substandard P96.4 million (Dh5.8 million) river barrier in Calumpit; Topnotch Catalyst Builders Inc. of Eumir Villanueva; and SYMS Contractor of Robert Imperio, accused of participating in the ghost project network across the low-lying municipalities.

Political Fallout

Bulacan First District Representative Danny Domingo faces heavy scrutiny for allowing the scheme to happen under his nose, leading constituents to conclude he is part of the conspiracy. Senators Jinggoy Estrada and Joel Villanueva, as well as Representative Zaldy Co, were explicitly named by whistleblowers as alleged recipients of kickbacks. Estrada is in jail, Co is a fugitive in Europe, while Villanueva has switched sides in the ongoing Senate impeachment trial against Vice President Sara Duterte in a possible bid, according to observers, to earn favors from Marcos and escape prosecution.

Meanwhile, the DPWH engineers have become state witnesses, returning a total of P316 million (Dh19.15 million) in cash restitution to the government. DPWH Regional Director Gerard Opulencia surrendered P80 million (Dh4.84 million) in cash to government authorities, Bernardo returned P35 million (Dh2.12 million) to the state treasury, while Sally Santos of Syms Construction surrendered P20 million (Dh1.21 million). Alcantara, meanwhile, surrendered two luxury vehicles, while 28 expensive Discaya cars had been sequestered.

Juliano and other affected residents rued that in exchange for the staggering amounts stolen, all that they received as relief items from the Marcos government are some cans of sardines and packets of instant noodles.

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