Every typhoon season, thousands of Filipinos are affected by flooding.
Floodwaters damage homes and properties, destroy crops, and disrupt businesses and livelihoods, especially in the agriculture sector. They paralyze transportation and force class suspensions. Flooding also continues to claim thousands of lives year after year.
To address this problem, the government spends billions of pesos in taxpayers’ money each year on flood management programs. But despite the ballooning budget, the problem of flooding remains unsolved.
Here’s a look at how much the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) has spent on flood control over the years:
Over a span of 15 years, from 2011 to 2025, the government allocated P1.47 trillion for flood control and mitigation programs.
In 2025, the DPWH received the second largest budget allocation at P1.007 trillion, just behind the education sector — which includes the Department of Education, state universities and colleges, the Commission on Higher Education, and the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority — with P1.055 trillion.
Based on the National Expenditure Program, the DPWH’s proposed budget was P900 billion. In the bicam report, it ballooned to P1.034 billion.
Ibon Foundation executive director Sonny Africa flagged the budget insertions made by lawmakers on the DPWH during the bicam process, calling them “widely suspected to be more pork barrel projects.”
In a 2021 report, the Department of Justice said the DPWH and local government units received the highest number of corruption complaints among government agencies. – Rappler.com