Where do our billions go?

It's been days since the country felt the full wrath of Severe Tropical Storm Kristine, and now another tropical cyclone has entered the Philippine area of responsibility, threatening to intensify into a super typhoon with the strength of Yolanda.

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And yet in many parts of the Bicol Region and several areas hit by Kristine, the torrential floods have yet to fully subside. As of yesterday, the death toll from Kristine and the cataclysmic flooding that it spawned had risen to 145.

The high death toll plus the devastation caused by Kristine on agriculture, private property and public infrastructure have raised questions on the utilization of the billions allocated annually for flood control projects. Yesterday, President Marcos' sister, Sen. Imee Marcos, demanded a full accounting of the P132 billion that she said was allocated for flood control in Bicol over the past six years, with P86.6 billion of the amount appropriated in the past two years alone. For 2024, she said, the region has P31.94 billion allocated for flood control.