Philippines probe: 67 lawmakers moonlight as contractors — ₱245M cash stuffed in instant noodles box handed to gov’t engineers, impeachment looms for top state auditor

Manila: Accusations are flying fast and furious.

The money trail of up to 60 ghost and lemon flood-control projects executed by only 15 contractors in the country have been likened to the "Wonders of the World".

Residents in flood-hit areas were left wondering what happened to the billions earmarked for the projects.

Now, light has been shone on these ghosts, no less by President Ferdinand Marcos Jr himself.

The money trail does not stop at district engineers' office or Congress, but it goes all the way to the Senate.

On Friday, local media reported that the delivery of a contractor's alleged kickback was caught on the Senate CCTV cameras as it was being dropped to a Senator's office.

Amid tales of conspiracy, contract splitting, bags of cash (packed in instant noodles carton) in kickbacks, inefficient use of public funds, money laundering, the picture emerging is one of conspiracy to defraud and plunder.

All told, questionable flood-control projects amounting to at least $9.55 billion (₱545 billion) ringfenced by 15 contractors are currently under the spotlight.

"Harap-harapan, pinagnanakawan po tayo (we're being scammed in broad daylight," an angry Senator Panfilo Lacson told the Senate floor.

In the heat of parallel investigations, Senator Lacson dropped a massive revelation: 67 sitting congressmen are also contractors.

Lacson recently assumed chairmanship of the powerful Senate Blue Ribbon Committee following the flood-control-drive rejig of the chamber.

The disclosure has sent shockwaves through the political establishment, blurring the line between legislator and profiteer.

From livestreamed hearings, the rot is laid bare: stories of padded budgets, “tongpats” payoffs, and even entire rooms stacked with bundles of cash, allegedly to avoid paper trail and money-laundering trackers.

The spotlight now falls on at least 15 favoured contractors — companies that, year after year, manage to bag the fattest slices of the government’s multibillion-peso infrastructure pie.

Using the dummy system, in which small contractors unqualified to execute government projects are able to bag them through dummy, in cahoots with DPWH engineers, in effect to defraud the government.

Meanwhile, in the halls of Congress and the Senate, the very same lawmakers under suspicion have taken to grandstanding — posing as investigators while, in effect, probing themselves.

Public calls for sweeping budget reforms echo louder by the day, as critics warn that without systemic change, this saga will end as so many others have: in fiery headlines, but with the guilty walking free.

A bombshell announcement made by Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. on the creation of independent investigation body could expose this nexus.

In the Philippine House of Representatives and the Senate, hundreds of millions of pesos in flood control projects in small districts, as the snafu hits the fan surrounding amounting to at least $9.55 billion (₱545 billion).

On Thursday, Senators and members of the House of Representatives were locked in a bitter blame game.

With each member implicated in the mess trying to grab the public's limited attention span to clear their name, the marathon investigations (run in parallel by both houses, Congress and the Senate) have only exposed what critics are calling a “triangle of power and profit”.

It refers a tangled nexus of lawmakers, private contractors, and government engineers, and now auditors, allegedly working in cahoots behind the crumbling infrastructure in the Asian country.

What began as whispers about ghost projects and inflated budgets has now snowballed into a scandal of seismic proportions.

Here's one upside: Livestreamed hearings have revealed skeletons in the closets of many officials, leading to 250 engineers and staff at the DPWH getting sacked and "non-bailable" criminal cases filed against 25 persons on Thursday (September 11, 2025).

And it's just scratching the surface.

Behind every cracked highway, every lemon flood-control system, every bridge project that never seems to open on time and on budget, investigators are tracing the same sordid trail: padded budgets, rigged bids, and “tongpats” kickbacks siphoned off before construction even begins.

The revelations paint a damning picture: billions of pesos in Filipino taxpayer money diverted to political war chests and private pockets, long before a single cement bag is mixed or a steel bar is bent.

Public works, it turns out, may have been less about nation-building and more about empire-building — for politicians and their favoured contractors.

Ordinary Filipinos, meanwhile, are left footing the bill.

Funds that should have gone to classrooms for overcrowded schools, hospital wings for underserved provinces, or climate-resilient defenses against typhoons and rising seas have instead financed shortcuts, substandard materials, and quick political paydays.

As public anger grow, erring officials can bank on one thing: Filipinos are "soft", quick to forgive and forget.

Many Filipinos at the receiving end of what appears to be an institutionalised multi-billion-dollar kickbacks system, are now calling for sweeping reforms.

For one, the practice of midnight budget "insertions" by the powerful Appropriations Committee in the House has taken the media spotlight.

For many, the scandal has become a grim symbol of how corruption festers in plain sight — an open secret — visible in the potholes, in the perennial floods, and in bridges that crack before their ribbon-cuttings.

With public outrage mounting, pressure is now on the Department of Justice, the Ombudsman, and a new reform-minded leadership at the Department of Public Works and Highways to deliver more than just fiery rhetoric.

The country waits to see if this web of collusion will finally be untangled — or if, like the broken roads it has produced, it will be patched over once again.