Philippine health worker Christina Padora waded through July’s waist-high flood water to check on vaccines and vital medications stored in the village clinic, something she had regularly done during previous typhoons.
But this time she didn’t make it. Taking hold of a metal pole that she failed to see was connected to a live wire, the 49-year-old was fatally electrocuted in the water.
Padora’s death in the province of Bulacan is one of dozens of recent flood-related fatalities in the Philippines, where allegations of corruption related to flood control projects have sparked widespread anger and street protests. Lawmakers, contractors and public works officials are accused of siphoning off billions allocated for flood mitigation through “ghost projects”, overpricing and kickbacks.
“She died because of the flood,” says Hajji Padora of his late wife. “It’s not only money that’s being wasted, lives are too.”
Hajji Padora in Bulacan. Photograph: Carmela Fonbuena
Flooding is a constant problem across the Philippines, a country deeply vulnerable to a changing climate and one that is hit by about 20 typhoons a year. Since president Ferdinand Marcos Jr took office in 2022, P545bn ( £7bn) has been poured into more than 9,855 flood-control projects nationwide.
Padora’s province received about P4.4bn in flood-control funds – more than any other region. But a former district engineer recently testified in a senate inquiry that all flood control projects in the province were “substandard” because 20% or more of project funds went to kickbacks for lawmakers alone.
Residents inside a house submerged in water due to corruption in a flood-control project in Calumpit, Bulacan Province Photograph: Anadolu/Getty Images
Newly installed ombudsman Jesus Crispin Remulla says the anti-corruption agency is completing evidence to file cases against at least a dozen lawmakers.
On 9 October, government investigators announced that ongoing inquiries had identified at least 421 “ghost projects” nationwide – reported as completed but later discovered to be nonexistent. Similar schemes are surfacing in other sectors, including large-scale infrastructure and health facility projects.
Anger first erupted on social media and has since spilled into the streets, with thousands of people – many of them youths – showing up in numbers unseen in recent years. A major protest on 21 September was followed by smaller street actions, with another large demonstration planned for November.
“We’ve seen how corruption has taken people’s lives in the form of substandard flood control projects, and we won’t let corrupt officials just walk away as if nothing happened,” says Dexter Yang, a law student who founded GoodGovPH, a youth-led movement for good governance.
Bride Jamaica Aguilar prepares to enter the flooded Barasoain church for her wedding in Malolos, Bulacan. Photograph: Aaron Favila/AP
Experts say climate change will continue to worsen flooding in the south-east Asian nation.
We need the corrupt to be convicted and truly held accountableDexter Yang, GoodGovPH
“What is really sad is the issues of disasters and climate change have been taken advantage of,” says Mahar Lagmay of the University of the Philippines Resilience Institute, which maps flood-prone areas and recommends data-based interventions.
Flood control projects in the Philippines, he says, are mostly dykes and other concrete infrastructure and are not the best solution to the country’s flooding problem. Lagmay says interventions such as planting trees and moving developments away from flood plains are preferable.
Filipinos wave a One Piece flag as they take part in a protest against corruption at Rizal Park. Photograph: Ezra Acayan/Getty Images
The flood scandal has triggered political turmoil, resulting in the replacement of the senate president and house speaker and the resignation of the house appropriations chief. All have denied involvement in flood control scams.
Newly installed public works secretary Vince Dizon has vowed to recover stolen money, while the anti-money laundering council has frozen at least P4.6bn in assets owned by officials allegedly linked to the scam.
This has not satisfied protesters who are flooding social media with calls to jail those behind the scams. “We need the corrupt to be convicted and truly held accountable,” says Yang.
Senator Panfilo Lacson, who until recently chaired the senate committee investigating the corruption, warns the list of implicated politicians would only grow. He estimates P1tn may have been lost to corruption in the past 15 years.
“Reviewing piles of classified documents, my staff and I wondered if the better question is, ‘Who is not?’ rather than, ‘Who is guilty?’,” Lacson says.
