A missed presidential deadline has reignited criticism of Malacañang’s handling of the multibillion-peso flood control scandal, with progressive lawmakers saying no senior figure has been jailed despite months of investigations and public assurances.
The Makabayan bloc said the administration failed to deliver on the President’s own timeline to put at least one major player behind bars before Christmas, describing the pledge as more performance than prosecution. In a statement issued on Christmas Day, the group said the absence of high-profile arrests underscored what it called a pattern of unfulfilled promises.
“The deadline has passed, yet not a single ‘big fish’ has been apprehended,” they said. “So much for ‘some people will spend Christmas in jail.’”
The phrase “big fish” traces back to remarks made by President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. in September, when he acknowledged that cases tied to questionable flood control projects would require airtight evidence against those allegedly running the kickback system.
“I suppose the description that we sometimes use—the ‘big fish,’ the ones truly operating this system,” he said at the time.
In November, Marcos again raised expectations, telling reporters that cases involving dozens of individuals were nearing completion ahead of the holidays.
“I think before, no, not ‘I don’t think,’ I know before Christmas many of those named here—their case will be finished,” he said. “They’re going to be locked up. They won’t have a Merry Christmas.”
Those remarks came amid parallel inquiries by the Senate and the House of Representatives, alongside an investigation by the Independent Commission for Infrastructure (ICI). Despite those proceedings, Makabayan lawmakers said the promised outcomes did not materialize.
“He left the Filipino public hanging,” the bloc said. “The President’s Christmas deadline was nothing more than empty rhetoric designed to pacify public outrage over massive corruption in his administration.”
They added: “The biggest Christmas scam is the administration’s pretense of fighting corruption while protecting the powerful and well-connected.”
Similar frustration was voiced by Kamanggagawa Rep. Eli San Fernando, who said the exposure of ghost and anomalous flood control projects had so far produced little beyond official statements.
“They try to look good on camera, acting brave and unafraid of sacred cows, but when it came to results, nothing!” San Fernando said. “While the people are being flooded and suffering the hardships of life, the administration is drowning us in promises.”
Palace press officer Claire Castro responded by urging the public to give investigators more time, saying the administration was proceeding within legal and constitutional bounds. Speaking to the Inquirer on Thursday, she said authorities had already taken significant steps in a short span.
She pointed to asset freezes ordered after petitions by the Anti-Money Laundering Council, the recovery of millions of pesos in alleged kickbacks, and the issuance of arrest warrants. Castro also said some suspects had gone into hiding and that arrests had been carried out.
Comparing the current drive with the previous administration’s record, she said earlier efforts failed to recover illicit funds.
“As a matter of fact, not even a single cent of illegally obtained money was recovered during that time,” she said.
When Marcos spoke in November, he disclosed that the ICI’s initial batch of referrals to the Office of the Ombudsman named 37 individuals, including sitting and former lawmakers, former officials, current officials of the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH), and private contractors.
Those identified included Senators Joel Villanueva and Jinggoy Estrada; resigned Ako Bicol Rep. Zaldy Co, a former House appropriations chair; former Caloocan Rep. Mitch Cajayon-Uy; and Commission on Audit chair Mario Lipana.
As of Dec. 25, however, only 23 people linked to the scandal were either detained pending trial or held by the Senate for contempt.
Public Works Secretary Vince Dizon said on Dec. 18 that only nine of the 16 individuals accused in the allegedly substandard P289.5-million road dike project in Naujan, Oriental Mindoro, were in custody, excluding Co.
Authorities have filed four criminal cases involving more than 20 accused, including Co, who was declared a fugitive after failing to return to face charges. The cases include two counts under the antigraft law and one count of malversation tied to the Naujan project, which was awarded to Sunwest Inc., Co’s construction firm.
Co faces one standalone graft charge and is a coaccused with DPWH Mimaropa engineers in another graft case and in the malversation charge, which is nonbailable because the amount involved exceeds P8.8 million.
A separate case names contractor Cezarah “Sarah” Discaya, along with Bulacan DPWH engineers and officers of St. Timothy Construction Corp., over a P96.5-million flood control project in Davao del Norte that investigators say did not exist.
San Fernando said the lack of any jailed elected official, even as Christmas Eve passed, highlighted what he called a selective pursuit of accountability.
“If the President is serious, congressmen and senators involved in these projects should be arrested, too. We cannot just go after those who are cleaning up things while the brains and the godfathers are safe,” he said.
He also noted that some key figures had either died or left the country as investigations dragged on, calling the situation a failure of enforcement rather than a shortage of evidence.
