Some mothers now joke: ‘Mag-engineer ka, anak—then become a contractor.’ It’s not really praise but frustration, because in the Philippines, engineering skill takes a backseat to the more lucrative business of grabbing billion-peso flood control contracts—and showing off wealth while the streets remain flooded. 

Since July 2022, the DPWH has funneled hundreds of billions of pesos into flood control nationwide. Alarmingly, 20% of that, or some ₱100 billion, went to just 15 contractors. Five of them hold projects covering nearly the entire archipelago.

Senator Sherwin Gatchalian pointed out the irony: MG Samidan Construction had only ₱250,000 in paid-up capital but got ₱5 billion worth of contracts, while QM Builders had ₱1.25 million in capital yet bagged ₱7.38 billion.

These figures clearly violate the rule of the Philippine Contractors Accreditation Board, which requires companies to have at least ₱1 billion in net worth to take on large-scale projects.

Then there’s the corruption scheme Senator Lacson has dubbed the “CORRUPTIONary.” Terms like “distinct” (identical-priced “ghost” projects, like multiple ₱77.199-million riverbank contracts in Bulacan), “reseta” (a 2–3% kickback), “parking fee” (5–6% royalty to local power brokers), and “funders” (20–25% for politicians who insert the projects into the budget), all reveal an elaborate system that slices away most of the money before a single flood-control facility is installed.

Lacson’s investigations show these ghost and substandard projects are widespread, particularly in Bulacan, Pampanga, La Union, and Oriental Mindoro. He’s urging full audits and transparency, even citing drone footage of collapsed dikes months after being “completed.” 

On a personal note, my daughter talks about a friend married to an engineer whose family often travels abroad. That’s fine if the money comes from honest work. By contrast, my own son, an engineer at San Miguel Corporation, lives modestly and can travel abroad only through his and his wife’s hard-earned savings (his wife works as an accountant at a Japanese firm).

So that mom-joke about raising sons to become engineer-contractors is not moral guidance—it is frustration disguised as humor. The billions meant for flood control projects flow into corrupt pockets, while our cities remain underwater.

Until audits result in convictions and budgets deliver actual flood defenses—not luxury cars and foreign trips—the same sad punchline will keep repeating itself.