BULACAN – Farmers’ group Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP) demanded a full investigation on the flood control projects in the Bicol region. 

This after its chapter, the Kilusang Magbubukid ng Bicol (KMB), inspected some of the flood control projects in Libon, Albay where they found inferior and substandard construction. The inspection was held on Aug. 16 and 17. 

Government records from the SumbongSaPangulo website show that 853 flood control projects have supposedly been completed in Bicol since 2022, including 273 in Albay, 252 in Camarines Sur, and 125 in Sorsogon, yet these provinces remain severely flood-stricken as seen during last year’s typhoons. 

In 2024, successive typhoons including Enteng (Yagi), Kristine (Trami), Aghon, and Man-yi (Pepito) ravaged Bicol, leaving widespread flooding, agricultural losses, and displacements.

KMP and its Bicol chapter, KMB, are calling for a thorough investigation into flood control projects in the provinces of Albay, Camarines Sur, and Sorsogon.

KMB also exposed glaring irregularities in Bicol’s flood control projects, pointing to overlapping and repeat contracts worth up to P200 million ($3.6 million) each, many of which remain incomplete or built with substandard materials. Among the cases cited was the San Agustin Flood Control Dike in Libon, Albay, which appeared in records as four separate “completed” projects between 2022 and 2024, yet residents continue to suffer from severe flooding. These revelations align with a Senate exposé linking the Co political clan of AKO BICOL Partylist to some of the region’s biggest contracts through their companies Sunwest Inc. (Zaldy Co), Hi-Tone (Christopher Co), and FS Co Builders and Supply (Farida Co, Albay vice governor), which also operate quarrying projects at the foot of Mayon Volcano, worsening flooding in nearby towns like Guinobatan.

From 2021 to 2024, Sorsogon-based Centerways Construction bagged P5.16 billion ($92.9 million) in flood control projects, with contracts jumping from five in 2021 to 44 in 2022. About 96 percent of these projects were in Bicol, including 54 in Sorsogon, 36 of them in the first district long held by Senate President Chiz Escudero’s family. The firm’s president, Lawrence Lubiano, was also named as one of Escudero’s campaign donors in 2022.

While these constructors bagged the billions worth of projects, the agriculture sector has been suffering from the billions worth of damages caused by typhoons. According to the Department of Agriculture, agricultural losses caused by the combined effect of tropical storms Crising, Dante and Emong, along with the southwest monsoon (habagat) in July reached P1.12 billion. This is why the farmer groups are also demanding compensation from the government to help them recover from the damages of calamities affecting crop production. 

“These so-called flood control projects are nothing more than a racket to amass wealth for political dynasties and their favored contractors, while Bicolanos are left to drown in floods and debt,” said Danilo Ramos, chairperson of Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP).

“The initial revelations of KMB show how deeply entrenched corruption is in public works, where disaster funds are treated as cash cows. Every fraudulent project means more lives lost, more communities submerged, and more farmers and poor families pushed into crisis all-year round,” he said.

The KMP urged Bicolanos to push for deeper investigations into flood control projects in the region and to hold accountable those behind alleged corruption.
“The people must demand justice. Billions wasted on fake and failed flood control projects must be reclaimed and re-channeled to genuine disaster preparedness and rural development and not to the pockets of the contractor-politicians and their political dynasties,” Ramos said. With reports from Anne Marxze D. Umil (RVO)

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