July 30, 2025 l Business Mirror
Baguio City Mayor and Mayors for Good Governance Lead Convenor Benjamin B. Magalong is urging businesses to take a stand against corruption.
“Good governance begins when we stop asking ‘What’s safe?’ and start asking ‘What’s right?,’” Magalong said before members of the Financial Executives Institute of the Philippines (Finex) at the Fairmont Hotel in Makati last Wednesday.
There are now over 200 mayors who signed for the anti-corruption movement but Mayor Magalong also saw the need for citizens to get involved by “speaking up in fora, supporting leaders who walk the talk and refusing to play the game.” Among those who earlier signed for the movement were Mayor Vico Sotto of Pasig City and Mayor Joy Belmonte of Quezon City, among others.
The cost of corruption
Magalong disclosed there is actually a cost of corruption that affects all citizens.
He cited a road stud project wherein a unit of a cat’s eye was overpriced by about P9,920, which translates into P237 billion when multiplied by the number of units bought. That amount could have been used to put up 95,000 classrooms to address a backlog of 165,000 units.
The money could also be used to establish 474 world-class hospitals (cost of P50 million per hospital), needed due to the severe lack of hospital beds nationwide.
According to the World Health Organization, the country has a ratio of 10 hospital beds for every 10,000 people, when the ideal is 1.5 hospital beds for every 1,000 Filipinos. That same amount could also be enough to construct 4,747 public schools (P50 million) or sponsor 1,580,000 student scholars in state schools, Magalong argued.
Other graft-loaded projects
Magalong indicated that an obscure project like a rock netting project (to prevent soil landslide) resulted in a P27-billion overprice, considering the declared cost of P25,000 versus the actual cost of P4,300.
Solar lights are overpriced by P111,000 per unit and are constructed too close to each other without necessity. Yellow barriers used for traffic facilities along the roads are wantonly constructed with an overpriced amount of P107,000 per unit.
The three-term mayor said that on the other hand, the country keeps on increasing its debt obligations, which started at only P7.7 trillion in 2019 (pre-pandemic) but has soared to a gigantic P16.7 trillion in 2024 and is expected to hit P17 trillion by the end of 2025.
Using that debt against our population statistics, he said, every Filipino now owes a personal debt of P145,000 compared to only P65,000 in 2019.
Weaponizing the 2025 budget
HE said that the 2025 General Appropriations Act (GAA) was an “election-year designed” budget where the Bicameral group decreased allocations from some basic sectors like: (-P11 billion) Department of Education, (-P12 billion) DSWD, (-P92 billion) DOTR, (-P74 billion) PhilHealth and (-P15 billion) AFP Modernization.
In turn, they were transferred to areas where legislators had a freer hand to distribute in the form of ayuda or others by increasing the allocation for Unprogrammed Funds (+P373 billion), DPWH (+P214 billion), and the House of Representatives (+16 billion).
The Mayors for Good Governance convenor explained that this movement was meant to encourage “governance practices grounded in integrity, thus shaping the future of local governance in the Philippines.”
The issue of corruption in the GAA became even more highlighted with the recent inclement weather that resulted in disastrous flooding in many areas. The item of “Flood Control” has been dubbed as the most difficult to audit project of the government for years.
People are scandalized that after allocating huge amounts to “Flood Control,” the flooding situation has even gotten worse. Statistics from the GAA showed that in 2020, out of a total capital outlay of P255 billion for infrastructure projects, some P93 billion of that was allotted for “Flood Control,” representing some one-fifth of the total infrastructure outlay.
By 2025, this “flood control” was raised to P249 billion, representing one-third of the total infrastructure budget of P621 billion. In one instance, one small barangay was allotted P10 billion for “flood control” projects. Senators-elect Tito Sotto and Ping Lacson vowed to look into this seemingly anomalous budget item when the 20th Congress opens this week.
On the other hand, the former COA Commissioner Heidi L. Mendoza enjoined citizens and nongovernment organizations to get involved in this by sending volunteers to accompany the COA during its audit mission on “Flood Control” projects. Then document the findings for the public to know. That’s people empowerment.
With P6 trillion to P7 trillion of national budget over the last two years, the government is deemed the biggest spending entity in the country; but with enormous unexplained leakages facilitated by graft practices.
***The views expressed herein are his own and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of his office as well as FINEX. For comments, email dejarescobingo@yahoo.com. Photo is from Pinterest.