Manila Mayor Isko Moreno Domagoso recently raised serious concerns over flood-control projects in the city valued at around ₱14.3 billion, which he claims were completed between 2022 and 2025 without securing the necessary city permits.
According to his office, 213 flood-control projects were implemented by 79 contractors in that period—but only a very small number coordinated with the local government. Moreno emphasised the troubling contradiction: despite the massive spending, flooding still regularly affects Manila. He asked the question: “Where’s the ₱14 billion when we’re still flooding?”
The mayor also warned that contractors who failed to pay required city taxes—amounting to hundreds of millions of pesos—could be blacklisted and barred from future projects.