Drowning in Denials: The Senators Who Profit While Manila Floods

How Joel Villanueva and Chiz Escudero turned disaster relief into personal enrichment schemes

By Louis ‘Barok‘ C. Biraogo — August 14, 2025

The Theater of Innocence

When President Marcos revealed that just 15 contractors had cornered ₱100 billion—20% of the Philippines’ massive flood control portfolio—two senators rushed to the microphones with performances worthy of Academy Awards. Senate Majority Leader Joel Villanueva declared with theatrical righteousness that no senator was linked to these contractors, while Senate President Chiz Escudero dismissed damning allegations as a mere “demolition job.”

But behind their carefully crafted denials lurks a darker truth: the documents they haven’t demanded, the questions they refuse to answer, and the bodies floating in Manila’s sewers while they play politics with flood funds.

Villanueva’s House of Cards: The CIBAC Hypocrite

The Corruption Fighter’s Fall from Grace

Joel Villanueva built his career on the Citizens’ Battle Against Corruption (CIBAC) platform—a man who supposedly fought the very graft he would later embody. Yet in 2016, the Ombudsman didn’t just allege wrongdoing; it issued a formal dismissal order for graft and malversation, finding Villanueva had diverted ₱10 million in PDAF funds to a ghost NGO linked to the Janet Napoles network.

This isn’t mere allegation. This is documented finding of administrative liability, complete with criminal charges and Sandiganbayan filings that remain public record.

When confronted, Villanueva claimed “identity theft”—a defense so weak it insults the intelligence of every Filipino who’s ever had to choose between medicine and meals. His current protestations of Senate innocence ring hollow from a man whose own hands were found dirty by the nation’s premier anti-corruption body.

The Smokescreen of Transparency

Villanueva’s call for SEC documents appears noble until you examine what he’s not requesting. While demanding corporate papers that show direct ownership, he conveniently ignores the labyrinthine world of nominee arrangements, shell companies, and proxy ownership that defines Philippine political corruption.

His theatrical demand for transparency becomes a masterclass in misdirection when you realize Bulacan—his political stronghold—received ₱12 billion in alleged budget insertions. The same man crying for Senate vindication benefits massively from the very system he claims to expose.

The Question That Haunts

Why should Filipinos trust a man whose NGO funneled millions to ghosts while children drowned in the very floods these projects were meant to prevent?

Escudero’s Empire of Excuses

The Sorsogon Windfall

Chiz Escudero’s dismissal of ₱142.7 billion in alleged budget insertions as a “small” figure reveals the breathtaking arrogance of a man who has never watched his home flood while politicians grow rich. His own province, Sorsogon, allegedly received ₱9.1 billion—a coincidence too convenient to ignore.

But the real scandal lies in the shadows: Lawrence Lubiano, Escudero’s top campaign donor through Centerways Construction, secured ₱5.16 billion in projects, over half in Sorsogon. This isn’t just favoritism—it’s a textbook case of quid pro quo corruption, where campaign contributions transform into billion-peso contracts.

The Mathematics of Moral Bankruptcy

Escudero’s defense—that ₱150 billion is “small” compared to ₱600 billion in total amendments—is the arithmetic of a sociopath. Tell that to the families in Metro Manila who watch their children’s toys float away each rainy season. Tell that to the vendors whose life savings wash into storm drains built by ghost contractors.

Every peso stolen from flood control is a bet against Filipino lives. Every duplicated project (multiple phases of the same river work) is evidence of a system designed not to prevent floods, but to generate profits for political allies.

The Clean Record Lie

Escudero trumpets his “clean record” while evidence of systematic favoritism piles up around him. His past rhetoric against corruption—condemning Arroyo, criticizing Binay—now appears as elaborate theater, preparing him for the role of principled leader while orchestrating one of the largest budget insertion schemes in recent memory.

The man who once postured as corruption’s enemy has become its most sophisticated practitioner.

The Human Toll of Political Theater

Children as Collateral Damage

While these senators craft their denials, real Filipinos suffer real consequences. The Commission on Audit has identified 3,000 delayed or defective flood control projects worth ₱131 billion. These aren’t just statistics—they represent families displaced, livelihoods destroyed, and children who will never return home.

In Marikina, families sleep on their roofs during typhoon season. In Malabon, mothers carry their babies through waist-deep sewage. In Pasig, elderly residents die trapped in their homes because the flood projects that could have saved them enriched contractors instead.

The ₱1.14 Trillion Question

Since 2015, the Philippines has allocated ₱1.14 trillion for flood control—enough to transform the nation’s infrastructure, to build drainage systems that actually drain, to create pumping stations that actually pump. Instead, flooding has worsened, proving that money alone cannot wash away the stain of corruption.

When senators steal flood funds, they don’t just steal money—they steal hope, safety, and futures from the most vulnerable Filipinos.

The Institutional Collapse

Democracy Drowning

These lies don’t exist in a vacuum—they represent the systematic erosion of democratic institutions. When the Senate Majority Leader has a documented corruption record, when the Senate President benefits from donor-contractor relationships, when both dismiss oversight as political theater, the very foundation of accountability crumbles.

The COA’s findings of ₱131 billion in ghost projects mirror the ₱10 billion Priority Development Assistance Fund scandal, proving that nothing has fundamentally changed. The names are different, the amounts larger, but the pattern remains: politicians steal, people suffer, impunity prevails.

The Global Shame

International observers watch these revelations with a mixture of disgust and familiarity. The Philippines’ reputation as a corruption haven doesn’t emerge from isolated incidents—it’s built on decades of exactly this kind of systematic theft, where natural disasters become opportunities for political profit.

Every flood that claims lives while contractors grow rich is a testament to the moral bankruptcy of Philippine governance.

The Path Forward: Demands for Justice

Immediate Actions Required

Complete Financial Disclosure: Release all SEC documents, beneficial ownership records, and DPWH contract awards for the 15 contractors—not just the corporate papers Villanueva strategically requested, but the full ownership chains that reveal the truth.

Subpoena Lawrence Lubiano: Demand testimony from Escudero’s top donor about the ₱5.16 billion in contracts his company received, particularly the concentration in Sorsogon.

Forensic Audit: Independent investigation of all flood control projects since 2015, with international oversight to prevent political interference.

Structural Reforms

Beneficial Ownership Laws: End the shell company game by requiring public disclosure of ultimate beneficial owners for all government contractors.

Criminal Accountability: Prosecute every politician who hides behind nominees, every contractor who pays for access, every clerk who processes fraudulent documents.

Constitutional Reform: Eliminate the legislative insertion system that allows politicians to direct funds to pet projects and political allies.

The Moral Imperative

Name and Shame: Every enabler—from Villanueva’s CIBAC allies who stayed silent about his PDAF scandal to Escudero’s Senate colleagues who benefit from budget insertions—must face public accountability.

Electoral Consequences: Voters must reject politicians with documented corruption records, regardless of their current denials or promises of reform.

Civil Society Action: Citizens must demand transparency, support investigative journalism, and refuse to accept the normalization of corruption.

The Moment of Truth

Behind Villanueva’s SEC request lurks a darker truth: the papers he hasn’t demanded reveal more than those he has. Behind Escudero’s “small” P150 billion lies the arrogance of a man who has never starved in a flooded slum.

These senators don’t just steal money—they steal the future from Filipino children who deserve to grow up in a country where public servants serve the public, where flood control actually controls floods, where corruption is punished rather than rewarded.

The evidence is overwhelming: Villanueva’s documented corruption history, Escudero’s donor-contractor connections, the systematic insertion of billions into allied districts, the continued failure of flood control despite massive funding. The only question remaining is whether Filipinos will accept these lies or demand the truth their children deserve.

Will Filipinos let these men steal their future—or finally rise?

The floods will come again this rainy season. The question is whether they’ll wash away more lives or finally cleanse the corruption that makes every drop of rain a threat to Filipino families. The choice, as always, belongs to the people who ultimately pay the price for their leaders’ greed.

The author calls for immediate congressional hearings, criminal investigations, and electoral accountability for all politicians implicated in flood control corruption. The time for denials has passed—the time for justice has come.