As millions of ordinary Filipinos recover from the massive destruction of livelihood and lives during the massive flooding caused by recent typhoons, the Marcos Jr. regime was forced to explain where the billions of taxpayers’ money go to address the never-ending problem of catastrophic flooding in the Philippines.

Marcos Jr. admitted in a recent press conference that of the flood control budget worth 545 billion pesos (about 9.5B USD), 15 contractors, mostly with clear ties to national and local politicians and/or to the political bureaucracy, cornered 20 percent of this budget or around 100 billion pesos (around 1.7B USD). It was also revealed that even provinces which are not flood prone bagged considerable amounts from this budget. One contractor has been reported to have contributed some 30 million pesos (around 525K USD) to the 2022 senatorial bid of the Philippines’ current Senate president Chiz Escudero, who is second in the line of succession to the Philippine presidency. Big businesses donate or contribute to the campaign or projects of bureaucrat capitalists in order to curry favors later as payback for their support.

This is not simply “corruption.” It is the very logic of bureaucrat capitalism—the collusion of big business, landlords, and the political elite to enrich themselves from public funds while leaving the people to drown in floodwaters.

Most of the budget go into the pockets of corrupt big businessmen and their bureaucrat capitalist collaborators in the state apparatus. The so-called finished infrastructures or projects are unacceptably substandard and inadequate and are obviously only for show, sometimes even posing dangers to the people instead of solving outright the people’s needs. Then there are also “ghost projects” which exist only in paper. Every peso pocketed by these vultures is stolen from the people’s survival and safety.

Amidst all these supposed expose’, the Marcos Jr. regime has merely highlighted its own corruption, hypocrisy and accountability in the Philippines’ environmental disasters.

“Marcos’ reckless pursuit of foreign-funded infrastructure projects and investments has led to abandonment of environmental regulations under the so-called “green lane.” This has intensified rampant quarrying of rivers and mining operations, ravaging the environment and the natural landscape. Ill-conceived infrastructure projects, including real estate development and land reclamation, malls, bridges and expressways have destroyed vital waterways and reduced the capacity of land to absorb water, exacerbating flooding.

“The devastating floods across the country are a direct consequence of the relentless drive for profit by big business and their foreign corporate and financial partners, and for kickbacks of corrupt bureaucrat capitalists under the current Marcos regime, as well as previous regimes. This is a stark reflection of the gross state of the semicolonial and semifeudal system in the Philippines, that serve the interests of the imperialists and the local ruling classes, to the detriment of the people’s rights and welfare, and the environment,” the CPP emphasized.

A case in point in Marcos Jr.’s and his profit-hungry cronies’ hypocrisy and disregard for the people’s interest, is the offer of close Marcos crony billionaire Ramon Ang, comprador topman of San Miguel Corporation – one of the biggest corporate conglomerates in the country, to help solve (sic) the flooding in Metro Manila.

A fishers’ group, Pamalakaya, dismissed Ang’s offer as no less outrageous, stating that Ang himself, along with his company SMC, is one of the main reasons why flooding is worsening in large parts of Metro Manila.

Pamalakaya explained that the flooding is caused by Ang’s megaproject - the 2,500-hectare New Manila International Airport (NMIA) reclamation project and the Navotas Coastal Bay Reclamation Project, in collaboration with the Navotas LGU, which will serve as access and support facility for NMIA.

These projects, the group emphasized, clogged waterways and canals, destroyed 600 mangroves and most importantly displaced 700 families without just compensation. They called to hold Ramon Ang accountable to the flooding and the devastation of the environment and the loss of the livelihoods of the communities in the coastal areas.

Groups of scientists and even the regime’s Department of Science and Technology have earlier denounced Ang and his multi-billion projects for worsening the flooding in Metro Manila.