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Helen Flores - The Philippine Star
December 27, 2025 | 12:00am
Eight of the accused linked to an anomalous flood control project in Oriental Mindoro are escorted to the Sandiganbayan November 24, 2025 for booking and issuance of commitment orders.
Miguel De Guzman
MANILA, Philippines — More persons linked to irregularities in flood control projects will be “thrown behind bars in the New Year,” Malacañang said yesterday.
Presidential Communications Secretary Dave Gomez gave the assurance, as critics slammed the administration for failing to deliver on President Marcos’ promise to jail the so-called big fish before Christmas.
The government’s investigation into alleged irregularities in flood control projects is far from over, Gomez pointed out.
He stressed that the detention of controversial contractor-couple Sarah and Curlee Discaya marks only “an early phase” of a much broader accountability drive.
“The flood control investigation does not end on Dec. 25. It’s only been a little over four months,” Gomez said.
He assured the public that the Marcos administration would continue to hold to account all persons involved in irregularities in infrastructure projects.
“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,” the Palace communications secretary said, referring to graft convict Janet Lim-Napoles.
Napoles was accused of masterminding the pork barrel scam for at least a decade, allegedly using a network of bogus nongovernment organizations to siphon off public funds, involving about P10 billion in lawmakers’ Priority Development Assistance Fund to ghost projects in exchange for massive kickbacks.
Gomez noted that the scale of the Discayas’ alleged ill-gotten wealth far exceeds previous figures in past corruption scandals.
“Some quarters are calling the Discaya couple as the new Napoles, but their unexplained wealth is 10 times over. Both spent Christmas in detention,” he said.
Sarah Discaya was arrested on Dec. 18 over the P96-million ghost flood control project in Davao Occidental. She is currently detained in the Lapu-Lapu City Jail.
Curlee Discaya, on the other hand, is detained at the Senate premises after being cited in contempt by the Senate Blue Ribbon committee for inconsistent testimony.
Calling it the “biggest Christmas scam,” the Makabayan bloc accused the Marcos administration of creating the illusion of fighting corruption while actually “protecting the powerful and well-connected.”
They criticized Marcos’ promise as “empty rhetoric,” aimed only at “pacifying public outrage” over the corruption besetting his administration.
At a press conference last November, the President said there would be “no merry Christmas” for officials and others linked to corruption in flood control projects as they would be behind bars by then.
“Before Christmas, many of those named here… their case will be over, their case will be complete. They will be jailed. They won’t have a merry Christmas. Before Christmas, they will be locked up,” Marcos said at the time.
