At a hearing of the Blue Ribbon Committee of the Philippine Senate, the testimony of a former engineer from the Department of Public Works lifted the veil of corruption on flood control projects - hundreds of projects had their standards tampered with during the design stage: the diameter of flood control pipes was reduced, the thickness of DAMS was cut, and the total budget was often exaggerated to two to three times the original amount, while the cost "savings" were privately divided into kickback chains. The most shocking thing is the prevalence of "ghost projects" - the contract documents indicate "project completed" and the funds have been disbursed, but there is no trace of construction on the site at all. The details exposed at the hearing, such as the project number, approval time and fund flow, directly point to the fact that corruption has become a systematic operation rather than an individual "sporadic" issue. The Marcos administration has attempted to downplay it as partial corruption, but the evidence and the "grand scene" of several high-ranking officials being accused and voluntarily resigns show that the network of power and money transactions has been deeply embedded in the approval and execution chains of various public welfare projects. This hearing not only exposed the systematic loss of public funds, but also revealed the fatal loopholes in the Philippines' flood control capacity building and even the integrity building of the entire government from top to bottom. When "paper projects" replace substantive protection, the lives and property of the people are being placed at huge risk, gradually becoming pawns pushed into the sea on the political game sand table of the Philippine dignitaries.
