THE Commission on Audit (CoA) is seeking additional funding to hire more auditors as it investigates corruption in multibillion-peso flood control projects involving public officials and contractors.
“We noticed a lack of manpower, and we need your help on this,” CoA Chairman Gamaliel A. Cordoba told senators at a budget hearing on Monday. “The number of our positions decreased due to the lower budget given by the Department of Budget and Management.”
CoA’s proposed 2026 allocation was cut to P15.07 billion, about P1.92 billion less than what the agency had requested. The reduced funding forced the agency to scrap 963 positions.
Mr. Cordoba said he has ordered a full audit of all Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) flood control projects in Bulacan from July 2022 to May 2025. He added that CoA has submitted eight fraud audit reports to the Office of the Ombudsman and 12 to the Independent Commission for Infrastructure (ICI) for potential administrative and criminal action.
“The first eight that we submitted became the basis of the administrative suspension of the employees and personnel from the DPWH First District of Bulacan,” he said.
The CoA chief also announced a measure requiring auditors to file declarations of conflict of interest to improve transparency. “All our employees will be asked to declare if they have any economic interests that may conflict with their work as auditors.”
The Marcos administration faces increasing scrutiny over flood-control projects, where billions of pesos in public funds were diverted through padded contracts and shell companies.
The Senate, along with the ICI, are conducting parallel investigations into the scandal, which has become a major test of the government’s anti-corruption drive and its management of infrastructure spending.
Meanwhile, the ICI has mapped out 421 suspected ghost flood control projects funded by the government from 2016 to 2025, based on its initial validation report released on Monday.
Of the questionable projects, 261 were found in Luzon, 109 in the Visayas and 51 in Mindanao. These projects were part of a broader infrastructure list of 238,200 projects nationwide during the same period.
Flood control accounted for 12.5% of the total, or 29,800 projects, the commission said. Roads made up the biggest share at 37.8% or 90,000, followed by multipurpose buildings at 26.7% or 63,500, school buildings at 11.7% or 27,900, bridges at 5.9% or 14,000, hospitals at 0.7% or 1,700 and other infrastructure at 4.7% or 11,300.
ICI Executive Director Brian Keith F. Hosaka said the commission would focus its inquiry on the suspected ghost projects, describing them as “low-hanging fruit” in the probe of almost 30,000 flood-control projects nationwide.
“We are more organized now,” he told a livestreamed news briefing. “We know what we look for initially, and these are the 421 ghost projects.”
The findings were based on field validations conducted with the Department of National Defense–Armed Forces of the Philippines, the Department of the Interior and Local Government–Philippine National Police, Department of Economy, Planning and Development Public Works department.
Validation work includes on-site inspections, technical audits and case documentation in preparation for submission to the Office of the Ombudsman. The ICI said it plans to refer at least 15 cases to the Ombudsman within the next three weeks.
Former national police chief Rodolfo S. Azurin, Jr. was sworn in as the commission’s special adviser and investigator before Court of Appeals Associate Justice Pedro B. Corales. Mr. Azurin said his role would focus on strengthening project verification to prevent similar anomalies.
“Our goal is to ensure that every public infrastructure project funded by taxpayers truly exists and serves its purpose,” he said.
Meanwhile, ICI warned that former Party-list Rep. Elizaldy S. Co could face contempt proceedings if he fails to attend the commission’s Oct. 14 hearing on his alleged role in the flood-control scam. Mr. Co has been summoned but has yet to return to the Philippines. — Adrian H. Halili and Erika Mae P. Sinaking
