Nearly ₱1 billion in flood control funds has been funneled into Iloilo City this year, yet residents still find themselves wading through murky waters each time heavy rains fall, raising doubts over whether the massive spending has truly made a dent.
Documents obtained by IMT NEWS showed that ₱945,985,191.41 in flood control allocations were secured in 2025 through the office of Iloilo City Lone District Rep. Julienne Baronda. The amount dwarfs the ₱737.3 million released in 2024 and the ₱71.1 million in 2023, bringing the city’s three-year flood control budget to nearly ₱1.75 billion.
The single biggest beneficiaries of the 2025 contracts are firms linked to the Discaya family — St. Timothy Construction, St. Gerard Construction, and Alpha & Omega — which together cornered ₱383.5 million worth of projects in 2025 alone.
In 2024, the same firms also bagged ₱374.6 million worth of contracts, cementing their dominance over the city’s flood control allocations.
Funds poured, floods persist
Despite the staggering outlay, critics argue that the projects fail to confront the city’s most pressing problem: a long-overdue drainage master plan.
Instead, much of the funding has gone into embankments and seawalls — measures engineers and community groups dismiss as piecemeal “band-aid” solutions. In some cases, these structures have even made flooding worse.
In Barangay Mohon, for instance, a flood embankment was built directly inside the Iloilo River, narrowing the waterway and triggering an overflow that left seven barangays in neighboring Oton submerged for four consecutive days.
“Before, we had flooding, but never like this,” a resident lamented. “Now every downpour feels like a disaster waiting to happen.”
Complaints reach Malacañang
Projects like the multimillion-peso Bo. Obrero seawall have been flagged in complaints lodged with Malacañang. Yet some remain missing from the Palace’s online anomaly tracker, fueling concerns about transparency and accountability.
Baronda silent
Baronda has yet to explain why her office poured nearly ₱1 billion into flood control this year — or why firms linked to the Discaya family have consistently cornered hundreds of millions of pesos worth of contracts year after year.
Critics contend that had the funds been channeled into a comprehensive drainage plan, Iloilo might finally have seen long-term relief from perennial flooding. Instead, billions have flowed — but so has the water.
For detractors, the unanswered questions — and Baronda’s silence — have earned her an unflattering new moniker: Iloilo’s “Flood Control Princess.”IMT
