MANILA, Philippines – Umabot sa P360 bilyon ang gastos ng Department of Public Works and Highways para sa flood control projects ngayong 2025, ayon sa Climate Change Commission nitong Biyernes, Setyembre 26.
Ang pagbabahaging ito ng CCC ay sa pamamagitan ng budget sponsor nito na si ACT-CIS party-list Rep. Edvic Yap, sa House plenary deliberations ng proposed P183 milyong badyet para sa 2026 ng CCC.
Sa pagtatanong ni Kabataan Rep. Renee Co, sumagot si Yap na batay sa implementasyon ng CCC ng Climate Change Expenditure Tagging Program, ang climate change expenses ng DPWH ay umabot sa P754 bilyon, kung saan P360 bilyon ay para sa flood control projects.
“The CCC does not do the planning, only the tagging [of climate change expenditures]. From their tagging, P360 billion was for flood control,” ani Yap.
Dahil dito ay kinwestyon ni Co ang malaking gastos ng DPWH para sa flood control projects, kahit na madalas ang mga pagbaha sa bansa.
“We ask these questions, Mr. Speaker, because we’d like to know why the environmental budget, or at least how it is tagged and how the Climate Change Commission tracks it, remains less than 0.5% of the national pie. When climate emergencies and ecological collapse mostly impact rural and poor communities, the indigenous peoples and fisher folk, we want to know why frontline communities are left to their own devices when disaster strikes while funds mostly go to consultancy and monitoring contracts or infrastructure projects that turn out to be ghost or substandard,” sinabi ni Co.
“We are concerned if agencies are implementing measures to ensure that climate change problems are addressed in accordance with the CCC’s Climate Change Action Plan,” dagdag pa niya.
Tumugon si Yap sa pagsasabing sinisiguro ng CCC ang pagtugon ng mga ahensya sa pakikipagtulungan sa Commission on Audit at Department of Budget and Management, sa pagbibigay ng rekomendasyon kung paano pa mapabubuti ang compliance at mga action plan para rito.
Sa kabila nito, sinabi ni Co na hindi sapat ang hakbang na ito dahil sa mga ulat ng ghost projects o mga substandard na flood control projects.
“As it stands, it looks like po that what happens is there are consultative conferences, there are monitoring conferences, but it is unclear how CCC is really able to ensure compliance. Case in point is the P360 billion expenses for flood control and we now see that most of these flood control projects are actually ghost, substandard. There a corruption crisis and a worsening climate change crisis at the same time,” pagpapatuloy ni Co.
“There were no adaptation, mitigation measures, they were not implemented to serve the most vulnerable communities that are affected by climate change,” dagdag pa niya. RNT/JGC
