SANTA MARIA, Bulacan — Amidst the probe on flood control projects of the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH), several local government units (LGUs) in the past week have complained that many of the said projects in their areas were not coordinated with them nir were there consultations done with experts before construction began.

According to a number of local chief executives, some DPWH projects were also implemented by contractors without their approval, making them incompatible with local development plans.

The LGUs complaint was triggered by Baguio City mayor Benjamin Magalong's revelation that he was privy to documents that show irregularities in the construction of the flood control projects in question, thus soliciting a reaction from Malacañan to submitbthe information he had gathered to President Ferdinand 'Bongbong' Marcos Jr.

Magalong said on Friday he would comply with the Palace suggestion and turn over the document in his possession that details the connivance between some lawmakers and contractors.

Earlier, the mayor and Sen. Panfilo Lacson claimed that 67 members of the House of Representatives were moonlighting as contractors and may have been involved in substandard or defective infrastructure projects.

In his Fourth State of the Nation Address (SoNA), the president ordered the investigation of all flood control projects undertaken under his administration, admitting that many of these failed to protect Filipinos from floods that submerged their communities for days.

A week later, Marcos Jr. showed a list of all 9,855 flood-control projects implemented by the DPWH from July 2022 to May 2025 and another list of 15 contractors who reportedly cornered 20 percent of the projects.

The president expressed that he found it “disturbing” that PhP100 billion or 20 percent of the entire PhO545-billion budget for those projects was awarded to only 15 out of 2,409 accredited contractors.

On August 15, while inspecting the recently rehabilitated dike in the perennially flooded town of Calumpit, Bulacan, Marcos was visibly irritated by the crumbling concrete embankment on a portion of the Pampanga River, calling the workmanship “irregular and sloppy.”

He demanded answers from project contractor St. Timothy Construction Corp., one of the 15 contractors on his list. Based on data, the P96.4-million project was completed only in February 2023.

“St. Timothy is the contractor here, so we’ll look into this. We need to hold them accountable and ask why they did it this way,” Marcos vowed.