Frankly Speaking: One Standard for Everyone

Former Senator Franklin Drilon is very much in the right to call on the Ombudsman to move faster on Iloilo City’s flood control projects, especially when the numbers are that big and the questions have been hanging in the air. We are eternally thankful for his frank thoughtfulness.

Imagine billions of pesos getting swept away by substandard, and frankly, useless floodways and dikes as seen in the other parts of the country.

We also want clarity in Iloilo City and province, as there are only allegations of this and that, but nothing concrete like that in Bulacan and Mindoro.

Just ask former senator Ramon “Bong” Revilla Jr.

But if we are going to talk about vigilance and public money, we cannot keep pretending there is only one corner of the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) worth looking at.

Senator Drilon wants DPWH Iloilo City District Engr. Roy Pacanan out (and he is now out), pointing to “numerous” flood projects whose costs “could not be justified,” and fine, let the Ombudsman do its job, and let DPWH explain every peso.

Still, a lot of people in Iloilo have been asking a simpler question for a while now: why does the indignation feel louder for Pacanan than for the flyovers Drilon openly calls his own “legacy projects”?

In the same breadth that he urges probes, he is also launching a memoir that practically frames him as “Senate President in the Morning, District Engineer by Afternoon.”

That “district engineer” line reads well on a book jacket, but it rings differently when the public can see what happened on the ground, especially with all the traffic jams and other inconveniences caused by the Ungka and Aganan flyovers.

Take Ungka flyover, the one that became a national punchline for a time, because it opened, then it sank, then it closed, then it reopened with repairs and consultants and all the usual explanations.

The original project cost was reported at PHP 680 million, and the total has been reported as reaching PHP 975 million after repairs and related work, which is not pocket change you can shrug off with nostalgia about the good old days of “workaholic” engineers.

In 2023 alone, the DPWH paid PHP 13.48 million for a third-party consultant to investigate what went wrong, which is basically the government paying extra just to explain itself.

Then there is the delayed Aganan flyover, which has been stuck in that familiar Philippine purgatory where everyone insists it will be finished “soon,” but the bill keeps growing.

In January 2026, DPWH’s own explanations put the flyover’s original cost at PHP 802 million, with an additional PHP 229 million for rectification works on top, and another PHP 285 million being talked about for jet grouting and widening to finally get it done.

So yes, investigate flood control, especially when PHP 2.2 billion in projects are underway and questions swirl about who gets what and why.

We deserve the truth, and heads must roll, just as Senator Drilon has demanded.

But a basic standard says the same glare should hit the flyovers, because they are also public works, also funded by taxpayers, also wrapped in politics, and also surrounded by cost escalations and accountability gaps.

This is where the “unity” talk gets slippery, because unity is nice when it means faster projects, but it becomes a problem when it quietly trains everyone to clap and move on, even when a project is delayed, defective, or bloated.

And can we stop acting like delivering projects is sainthood?

Lawmakers run on promises to bring development home, and they swear an oath to serve, so the bar is not “thank you for the road,” the bar is “did you deliver it properly, on time, and with clean procurement?”

A fair way forward is not complicated: Publish the full paper trail for Ungka and Aganan, including variation orders, design revisions, and who signed off when, then let independent engineers speak in plain language, then let Commission on Audit (COA) and the Ombudsman do the unglamorous work of following the money.

If the good senator can demand accountability from Pacanan, he can also demand it from the projects that carry his fingerprints, because the public is tired of selective outrage, and frankly, we should be.