A Tale of Two Failures

Iloilo City and province are on the rise, but look closer, and you’ll see a foundation built on shaky ground—literally. Our public infrastructure has become a symbol of something far more unsettling than mere inconvenience: it’s a testament to a systemic failure of planning and accountability.

The saga of the Ungka and Aganan flyovers, alongside the controversy surrounding our flood control projects, paints a stark picture of public funds gone to waste and public trust eroded.

The flyovers were sold to us as monuments to progress, solutions to the city’s crippling traffic. Instead, they’ve become an enduring monument to mismanagement. The Ungka Flyover, specifically, has become a household name for all the wrong reasons. Promised to ease our daily commute, its “vertical displacement” or sinking has made it a daily source of frustration.

The Aganan Flyover, facing similar issues, only reinforces the pattern. These aren’t minor construction glitches; they’re symptomatic of a deeper problem: a lack of proper due diligence and oversight from the very start. The added costs for rectification, a burden on taxpayers, feel like a slap in the face. Who is being held accountable for these multi-million-peso blunders? The answer, so far, is a deafening silence.

The flyover debacle is not an isolated incident. The city’s flood control projects, designed to protect us from nature’s wrath, are now being accused of making things worse. For years, we’ve watched these projects snake through our city, altering our waterways. Now, amid heavy rains, many believe these very projects are contributing to the severe flooding they were meant to prevent. The concerns aren’t new; they’ve been raised repeatedly by engineers, environmentalists, and ordinary citizens. Yet, the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH), the same agency behind the flyovers, has been slow to provide clear, satisfactory explanations. The lack of coordination with local government and barangays only adds to the chaos.

The common thread weaving these two narratives together is a painful absence of transparency, accountability, and genuine public service. Both the flyovers and the flood control systems are critical pieces of infrastructure. Their failures aren’t abstract; they directly impact the lives of Ilonggos, from time wasted in gridlock to homes submerged in floodwaters. It’s a recurring theme: projects are promised, money is spent, and when things go wrong, the public is left to deal with the fallout.

More than a technical problem, we now face a crisis of confidence. We cannot continue to accept half-baked projects and empty promises. The people of Iloilo deserve to know why these projects failed and what steps are being taken to ensure it never happens again. We need more than political posturing; we need a complete and transparent review of these projects. The DPWH must be held accountable for its glaring failures.

The issue of accountability must be broadened. The budgets for these projects don’t materialize out of thin air. They are approved and allocated by lawmakers in Congress, who have a duty to ensure that public funds are used efficiently and transparently. We must ask: What due diligence was done before these budgets were greenlit? What oversight mechanisms were in place to prevent the very failures we are now witnessing?  The responsibility for these white elephants also falls on government bodies like the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) and the Commission on Audit (COA). They are the gatekeepers and the watchdogs of public spending. Were the red flags missed or ignored?

We need a full, independent audit of every major infrastructure project, with the findings made public. We need our lawmakers and government agencies to stop pointing fingers and start taking ownership. A functional government is a transparent and accountable one.