The disclosure of massive corruption and wasteful spending of public funds has triggered a floodgate of questions, accusations, and confusion.
Among the major questions are: Who are the big fish and real crooks? And how and why did they manage to skirt the law, and milk taxpayers money by the trillions?
But most important of all: What is the endgame that would meet the standards of true accountability and transparency, and how else should the corruption be curbed, or even ended, not just regarding flood control projects but also bigger contracts for roads and bridges, school buildings, health services, and information technology contracts?
To promote true and full transparency and accountability, the Right to Know, Right Now! Coalition (R2KRN) issues a few challenges to President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. and all other concerned officials and agencies:
- The prompt public release of the Statement of Assets, Liabilities, and Net Worth (SALNs) of officials and personnel of the Department of Public Works and Highways, Bureau of Internal Revenue, and Department of Budget and Management. The SALNs of officials and personnel of the DPWH from the national and regional levels down to district engineers should complement the list of flood control projects published by the Office of the President. The President and his Cabinet should also publish their SALNs to lead by example. The Executive’s disclosure can be implemented through the same sumbongsapangulo (https://sumbongsapangulo.ph/) platform.
Similarly, lawmakers of the Senate and House of Representatives should disclose their SALNs, given that they are being linked to the projects not only through congressional insertions, but also through relationships with contractors;
- The speedy and comprehensive release, at minimal cost, by the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Department of Trade and Industry of all relevant documents from the year 2021 to the present filed by the top contractors of flood control projects, including their current and recent records of their original and amended articles of incorporation, general information sheet, financial statement, and registration as single-proprietorship or partnership entities;
- The immediate and full disclosure by the Bureau of Internal Revenue of who and which Revenue District Offices and officers signed on to the tax clearance certificates of the top contractors of public works projects, as reflected in their registration document with the Philippine Government Electronic Procurement Service (PhilGEPS);
- The immediate and full disclosure by the Department of Budget and Management of the registration status and categories of the top contractors of flood control projects, at the time they filed for bidding of contracts;
- The complete, full, and prompt disclosure by the Department of Public Works and Highways of decisions it made in regard to blacklisting of contractors with significant to serious contract slippage, in the last five years, or from 2020 to the present, including the names of the companies, representatives and contract signatories, and projects undertaken; and
- The complete, full, and prompt disclosure by the Department of Public Works and Highways of decisions it made in regard to suspension or termination of its personnel (municipal engineers, district engineers, regional directors, and assistant secretaries and undersecretaries) in charge of flood control, foreign-assisted and related projects that had been found to be anomalous, from 2020 to the present.
The publication of a project list and the launch of a citizen-reporting platform through sumbongsapangulo.ph are important steps toward transparency. However, these measures only reveal where public funds are allocated, not whether those in control of these funds are benefiting improperly.
Linking project data with SALN information allows citizens, media, and oversight institutions to connect spending decisions and project implementation with the financial interests of public officials.
The SALN is a constitutional and statutory requirement under Article XI, Section 17 of the 1987 Constitution and Republic Act No. 6713 (Code of Conduct and Ethical Standards for Public Officials and Employees). As explained by the Supreme Court in Abid-Babano v. Executive Secretary (G.R. No. 201176, 28 August 2019), its objectives are to promote transparency in the civil service, establish a deterrent against government officials bent on enriching themselves through unlawful means, and suppress any questionable accumulation of wealth that usually results from the non-disclosure of such matters.
At a broader level, the flood control anomalies expose serious weaknesses in an otherwise extensive anti-corruption and accountability framework that provides strong safeguards on paper. The persistence of corruption despite these mechanisms underscores failures in enforcement, coordination, and proactive disclosure.
To prevent the current anti-corruption drive from becoming another short-term, optics-only campaign, the President should lay down a clear roadmap for audits and investigations, set timelines for outcomes, ensure independent participation of oversight actors, and demonstrate leadership through full disclosure. Proactive publication of SALNs is an essential measure to ensure that efforts to curb corruption are comprehensive and credible.
Finally, all the other agencies exhorted to meet these challenges would do well to reinforce this effort, notably the SEC, BIR, and DBM.
Beyond the fireworks display of corruption, and as safeguards against conflicts of interest and collusion, citizens have a right to know the ties that bind, as well as the financial and business interests that link contractors and public officials.
Download statement here: Release all SALNs, DPWH, DTI,SEC, BIR records