P118.5 B a year lost to flood control corruption — DOF

Economic losses from corruption in flood control projects may have averaged P118.5 billion annually from 2023 to 2025, the Department of Finance reported yesterday at a Senate hearing.

- Marco Luis Beech

Without these losses, Finance Secretary Ralph Recto said the economy could have expanded by as much as six percent. "Raising revenues is no joke. Then you will see that it does not go to the right projects and the welfare of the people. Some even become non-existent. Because of ghost projects, our economy has lost P42.3 billion to P118.5 billion," Recto said at the Development Budget Coordination Committee (DBCC) briefing at the Senate.

The finance chief said the number of potential jobs could have ranged from 95,000 to 266,000, essentially enough to boost economic activity.

He said it was only now that they had been apprised of the extent of the flood control problem.

"Maybe if that money was spent better, we could have reached six percent. That's the point," he said, citing the impact on the economy of flood control project anomalies.

The Philippine economy expanded 5.4 percent in the first quarter of this year, and 5.5 percent in the second quarter.

In 2024, full-year GDP growth settled at 5.7 percent, higher than the 5.5 percent recorded in 2023.

For this year, as targeted by the Cabinet-level DBCC, growth is expected at 5.5 percent to 6.5 percent from the original target of six to eight percent. But Recto is optimistic that the growth target for the third quarter would still be achievable.

Also at the briefing, Recto said revenues lost this year, especially from smuggling of oil and general merchandize, stood at P150 billion for the Bureau of Customs.