CoA orders audit of Bulacan flood control projects

THE Commission on Audit (CoA) has ordered a fraud audit of P44 billion worth of flood control projects in Bulacan province, following President Ferdinand R. Marcos, Jr.’s call to investigate alleged anomalies in infrastructure spending.

CoA Chairman Gamaliel A. Cordoba directed state auditors overseeing district engineering offices in Central Luzon to submit all documents necessary for the fraud audit.

“Given the critical issues raised by Mr. Marcos regarding the implementation of these projects, particularly in the Province of Bulacan, a fraud audit is an immediate and unequivocal necessity,” he said in the Aug. 12 memorandum.

Central Luzon received P98 billion in flood control funding between July 2022 and May 2025, the highest among regions and accounting for 18% of the P548-billion national total, amid government efforts to mitigate flooding.

Mr. Marcos last week revealed that 6,021 flood control projects beginning in 2022 lacked basic details specifying the type of infrastructure to be built, flagging about 50 separate projects that shared an identical contract price of P150 million.

In his fourth State of the Nation Address, the President ordered the Department of Public Works and Highways to investigate flood control projects that failed. — Kenneth Christiane L. Basilio