In a virtual press conference on Monday, Greenpeace reported that up to P1.089 trillion (US$19.1 billion) in government climate-tagged funds may have been lost to corruption and anomalous flood control projects since 2023 in the Philippines – a staggering misuse of resources that critics say leaves communities defenceless against intensifying climate disasters.
In 2025 alone, some P560 billion (US$9.8 billion) may have been misappropriated into “ghost projects” or substandard infrastructure, the environmental group warned.
Greenpeace Philippines’ estimation is based on data from the National Integrated Climate Change Database and Information Exchange System (NICCDIES). In August, a senator flagged that corruption cuts leave only 30 to 40 per cent of budgets for the actual implementation of these climate mitigation projects. During a Congressional hearing last week, Finance secretary Ralph Recto said that up to 70 per cent of these government funds may have been lost to corruption and substandard construction work.
At Eco-Business’ recently concluded Unlocking capital for sustainability Philippines forum, civil society leaders underscored that unchecked graft compromises the country’s ability to adapt to worsening climate risks.
“Beyond disaster response initiatives such as flood control projects, we have to ensure that Filipino communities are protected from climate- and disaster-related risks, and that they are equipped with the right tools and approaches to adapt to climate change impacts,” said Angelo Kairos Dela Cruz, executive director of Manila-based energy policy group the Institute for Climate and Sustainable Cities (ICSC).
At the same summit, health experts also warned that corruption in infrastructure is not just an economic issue but also a health threat.
“An effective flood control project is an effective health and climate measure,” said Dr Ramon San Pascual, executive director of Healthcare Without Harm Southeast Asia, a non-profit. “A corrupted one impacts badly on people’s health and even worsens the climate crisis.”
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They’re not just plundering government coffers, they’re also crippling the ability of millions of Filipinos to survive in the face of an escalating climate crisis.
Greenpeace Philippines, campaigner, Jefferson Chua
‘Crippling Filipinos’
The Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) oversees a majority of the Philippine government’s climate spending, controlling P800 billion (US$14 billion) of the archipelago’s P1 trillion (US$17.6 billion) climate budget in 2025.
President Ferdinand Marcos, Jr had earlier revealed that at least 20 per cent of all flood control projects in the last three years were undertaken by just 15 contractors, prompting an inquiry into the anomalies by the House of Representatives. Between July 2022 and May 2025, the administration poured P545 billion (US$9.2 billion) into 9,855 flood control initiatives nationwide.
For communities already battered by climate impacts, the consequences are tangible. Last Saturday, Quezon City was inundated after a record 141 millimetres of rain – five days’ worth – fell in just one hour, surpassing the peak intensity of typhoon Ondoy (known internationally as tropical cyclone Ketsana) in 2009. The floods laid bare how billions spent on defences have failed to shield vulnerable urban populations.
“Climate risks disproportionately affect the poor and marginalised,” said Rachel Anne Herrera, commissioner of the Climate Change Commission, in her closing keynote at Unlocking capital for sustainability Philippines.
She warned that as much as 8 per cent of the country’s critical infrastructure could be exposed to severe flooding in the next decade, with primary healthcare facilities among the most at risk – most of which, the commissioner noted, are “not designed to withstand extreme climate events.”
Experts and financiers also argue that resilience can no longer mean just “making do.”
“Resilience sometimes can take on a negative connotation – we just try to ‘make do’ with disasters. Resilience is how we make do whenever there is flooding, whenever there is a super typhoon,” said Marla Garin-Alvarez of BDO Unibank in her opening keynote at the same event. “We are now rising up. We [need to] redefine resilience: to fight corruption and demand what people deserve from their government.”
Greenpeace called the misuse of climate funds a crime against the public.
“They’re not just plundering government coffers, they’re also crippling the ability of millions of Filipinos to survive in the face of an escalating climate crisis,” said Greenpeace campaigner Jefferson Chua in a statement sent to Eco-Business. “Theft of climate funds at such a scale is atrocious, and offenders are akin to climate criminals.”
In a statement, the Integrated Bar of the Philippines echoed that these abuses are “not isolated” but part of systemic corruption that “distorts priorities, corrodes trust and mortgages the future of our people.”
Meanwhile, in an open letter to the Marcos administration, more than 100 civic organisations, business clubs and universities have demanded an independent multisectoral review of the government’s flood control projects, calling for a shift away from “cement-heavy” solutions toward nature-based approaches such as reforestation and watershed restoration.
Civil society groups emphasised that accountability must extend not only to corrupt officials and contractors but also to fossil fuel corporations driving climate change.
“The greed we’re seeing in this corruption scandal mirrors the greed of fossil fuel corporations that have put us in this climate crisis in the first place,” Greenpeace’s Chua said. “President Marcos must hold both corrupt actors and climate polluters accountable, and pursue reparations that will not add to the burden of Filipino taxpayers.”
An earlier version of this article stated the estimated amount to be P1.029 trillion (US$18 billion). It has since been corrected to P1.089 trillion (US$19 billion) to reflect an erratum issued by Greenpeace Philippines on Wednesday, 9 September.
