Presidential Communications Office (PCO) Secretary Dave Gomez, July 11, 2025. Revoli Cortez, PPA pool
MANILA — More personalities linked to anomalous flood control projects will be “thrown behind bars in the New Year,” Malacañang said on Friday.
The Palace gave the statement in response to criticisms against President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s earlier promise that several individuals who were involved siphoning of billions of pesos through anomalous flood control projects will spend Christmas behind bars.
While contractor Sarah Discaya and several Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) officials are already in detention and awaiting trial, the public continues to question why bigger names — such as former House Speaker Ferdinand Martin Romualdez and former House Appropriations Committee chairman Zaldy Co — have yet to be placed behind bars despite their alleged involvement in the corruption scheme.
“Some quarters are calling the Discaya couple as the new Napoles but their unexplained wealth is ten times over. Both spent Christmas in detention,” Communications Secretary Dave Gomez told Palace reporters in a statement.
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“The flood control investigation does not end on December 25. It's only been a little over four months,” he said.
“The Napoles probe took almost a year before people were sent to jail. There will surely be more thrown behind bars in the New Year,” he added.
Gomez did not say how many other personalities linked to anomalous flood control projects are expected to be arrested in 2026.
Discaya and other officials linked to a ghost project in Davao Occidental were arrested last week after charges of malversation and falsification of public documents were filed against them.
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Meantime, Co remains at large weeks after similar charges were filed against him due to a substandard flood control project in Oriental Mindoro.