Renewed calls for flood control probe meant to divert attention from Sara's Impeachment —Sandro

Repeated calls for a congressional investigation on the flood control mess are meant to distract the public from the ongoing impeachment trial of Vice President Sara Duterte, House Majority Leader and Ilocos Norte Rep. Sandro Marcos said Monday.

“It’s a battle of narratives. And they just want to take away from the impeachment. I don't want to say na namumulitika, but again, [it is] na question of narratives," the President's son told reporters after the opening of the Second Regular Session.

(Such call is playing politics.)

"My stance on that from the very beginning has been the same: the institution should not investigate an issue wherein its own members are part of the accused. That's like asking a student to grade their own paper in an exam,” Marcos added.

Congressman Marcos was responding to the repeated calls of Duterte allies for a congressional probe on the flood control mess to resume.

The House Majority Leader maintained that a credible flood control investigation is best left to the Office of the Ombudsman and the Justice department rather than Congress.

“Kahit anong maging resulta ng pag-iimbestiga, kung i-resume sa Lower House, ang sasabihin ng tao is, wala kaming tiwala [sa committee] report. So let's leave the Ombudsman and the necessary bodies to do that [investigation] themselves,” Marcos said.

(Whatever the results may be, if the probe was done by the Lower House, the people won’t trust the committee report.)

Pressed for comment since the Duterte’s hometown of Davao City is being devastated by floods, Congressman Marcos had a short answer.

“Grabe ka, nag-iintriga ka, ha,” he said.

(Hey, you are sowing intrigues with that [question].)

The Office of the Ombudsman has filed six batches of flood control project-related cases since Remulla assumed his post last October 2025.

These six batches of cases include:

• Malversation and graft charges against resigned Ako Bicol Party-list Representative Zaldy Co and at least 15 others over the P289 million alleged substandard road dike project in Oriental Mindoro;
• Malversation and graft charges against contractor Sarah Discaya and several others over the P96.5 million alleged ghost flood control project in Davao Occidental;
• Malversation and graft charges against former Senator Bong Revill, ex-Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) Bulacan Assistant District Engineer Brice Hernandez and five others over the alleged P92.8-million ghost flood control project in Pandi, Bulacan;
• Plunder and two counts of graft cases against Senator Jinggoy Estrada, former Public Works and Highways secretary Manuel Bonoan as well as DPWH National Capital Region District Engineers Manny Bulusan and Arturo Gonzalez, Jr. and Assistant District Engineer Denryl Caesar Cortuna over around P573 million worth of kickbacks off flood control projects
• Malversation and graft cases against contractor couple Curlee and Sarah Discaya, eight DPWH officials and Ma. Angeline Discaya Rimando of the Discaya couple’s St. Timothy firm and
• 14 counts of graft cases Uswag Ilonggo party-list Rep. James “Jojo” Ang Jr. over allegedly owning a stake in a construction firm that won ₱214 million in DPWH contracts and was paid nearly ₱199 million for them while Ang is serving as a House member.

The Constitution bans lawmakers from having financial interests in a government contract during his or her term as public official. —VAL, GMA News