November 21, 2025 | 5:17pm
MANILA, Philippines — As many as 1,200 people could be implicated in the government’s probe into anomalous flood control works, according to a rough estimate of the Independent Commission for Infrastructure, which is expecting a surge of new evidence from military and police teams deployed nationwide.
ICI Commissioner Rogelio “Babes” Singson said on Friday, November 21, that 64 personnel from the Armed Forces of the Philippines and the Philippine National Police have been sent to verify alleged ghost projects and contracts nationwide.
These projects are all linked to the “notorious” top contractors that President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. earlier singled out for having cornered a disproportionate number of projects since 2022.
Singson provided estimates on Friday that show the scale of the charges the ICI is expecting from the multi-billion-peso flood control scandal.
“One ghost project will involve easily 15 individuals,” the former DPWH secretary said.
Of the 421 flood-control contracts under scrutiny, Singson said the ICI has so far narrowed its focus to 80 projects tied to top contractors.
“Eighty, multiply it by 15… Do your math,” Singson said.
That computation by Singson suggests the potential involvement of roughly 1,200 people connected to anomalous or non-existent flood control works. The number could be lower if the same officials or contractors are involved in more than one anomalous project.
“I’m sorry sa Ombudsman, malulunod ka ng papeles at referrals (I’m sorry to the Ombudsman, you will drown in papers and referrals),” he added.
Since its creation in September, ICI has so far produced five interim reports, each containing recommended charges against officials and contractors linked to either substandard projects, or those that were never built but still fully paid for by the DPWH.
On Friday, the ICI and the DPWH submitted to the Office of the Ombudsman their recommendation to pursue plunder, graft and bribery charges against former House Speaker Martin Romualdez and former lawmaker Elizaldy Co.
This most recent referral is based on around P100 billion worth of government contracts bagged by the Co-owned construction firms Sunwest Corp. and Hi Tone Construction from 2016 to 2025.
The ICI earlier said it was prioritizing 80 flood control projects after determining that they were tied to the “15 or 18” contractors that President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. said in August had secured an outsized share of all flood-control contracts.
The commission said last week it would refer charges against three current and former senators linked to flood control kickbacks. But it delayed the filing of cases after a new affidavit by former DPWH Undersecretary Roberto Bernardo.
The former DPWH official claimed to have facilitated the illegal cuts for public works projects of senators Jinggoy Estrada and Mark Villar, former senators Grace Pope and Nancy Binay, former senator and now education secretary Sonny Angara, among others. These senators have since denied the allegation.
To date, only one of the ICI’s referrals has moved forward. The Ombudsman earlier this week filed corruption and malversation charges before the Sandiganbayan against former lawmaker Zaldy Co, DPWH officials, and Sunwest Corporation directors in connection with an allegedly irregular P289-million control project in Oriental Mindoro.
Anti-corruption protesters have repeatedly criticized the government’s response to the flood control scandal due to the lack of, or delays in, actual charges filed against the persons involved, especially amid allegations of large-scale collusion and misuse of public funds.