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Jean Mangaluz - Philstar.com
December 13, 2025 | 2:49pm
Lawmakers from both the Senate and the House of Representatives gather at the Philippine International Convention Center in Pasay City on December 13, 2025.
Philstar.com / Jean Mangaluz
MANILA, Philippines — Hoping to regain public trust after the massive flood control corruption scandal, Congress kicked off its first-ever livestreamed bicameral conference committee (bicam) on the national budget on Saturday, December 13, at the Philippine International Convention Center in Pasay City.
Prior to the scandal, the bicam had always been held behind closed doors, with only a select few lawmakers making key changes to the budget. Many budget insertions and anomalies have been attributed to these closed-door bicam meetings.
Present at the first-ever livestreamed bicam on the Senate side was Finance Committee chair Sen. Win Gatchalian, joined by Senators Loren Legarda, Kiko Pangilinan, Erwin Tulfo, Imee Marcos, and Bong Go. Senators Camille Villar and Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa were absent.
In his opening remarks, Gatchalian acknowledged the corruption crisis the country is facing, adding that work must be done to repair the social contract between the government and the people.
House Appropriations Committee chair Mika Suansing likewise recognized the need for transparency and greater public participation.
Suansing’s predecessor as appropriations chair, resigned lawmaker Zaldy Co, has been treated as one of the central figures in the flood control corruption scandal uncovered at the Department of Public Works and Highways.
Co has been implicated in several infrastructure scams, including anomalous flood control projects in Oriental Mindoro. The Office of the Ombudsman has already filed a case against Co over the project, with more cases expected to follow.
The resigned congressman is currently out of the country and is considered a fugitive by authorities, but this has not stopped him from implicating President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. and several others in a P100-billion corruption scheme.
The flood control corruption scandal exposed at the DPWH opened a can of worms that implicated several officials from both the executive and legislative branches, from Sens. Joel Villanueva and Jinggoy Estrada up to the president.
