Greenpeace Philippines called out the obscene greed of government officials and contractors who have allegedly pocketed billions from anomalous flood control projects intended for climate adaptation.
In a press conference today September 8, 2025, Greenpeace calculated that, based on estimations in Senate inquiries, some P1.029 trillion of the government’s climate-related expenditures could have potentially been lost to corruption since 2023, including P560-billion in 2025 alone.
Data from the National Integrated Climate Change Database and Information Exchange System (NICCDIES) website shows that in 2025, the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) holds the lion’s share of the climate-tagged projects: P800 billion of the P1 trillion of climate-tagged projects fell under its purview, comprising 90%, or 24,764 out of 26,874 climate-tagged projects. Of this, based on estimations, around P560 billion of the P800 billion is potentially being lost to corruption. DPWH climate-tagged flood-related projects in 2025 total P248 billion, of which, by the same estimation, P173 billion is vulnerable to corruption.
“A trillion pesos is a staggering, absurd amount, siphoned by avaricious, self-serving officials and contractor corporations from projects meant to help people cope with escalating climate impacts. This is unacceptable. 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. Theft of climate funds at such a scale is atrocious, and offenders are akin to climate criminals,” said Greenpeace campaigner Jefferson Chua.
Greenpeace says that corruption and greed are undermining the ability of millions of Filipinos to cope with climate change. Every year, millions of Filipinos lose lives, homes and livelihoods due to more frequent and more intense flooding. Floods have also caused massive economic losses for local governments as well as the national government. The flood control projects are meant to protect communities, but the ongoing investigations show that astronomical amounts for these climate adaptation efforts are going to the pockets of greedy government officials and private contractors.
Meanwhile, the Philippine government doesn’t have enough money to fund its climate adaptation needs or to cover the costs of climate losses and damages. The Department of Finance says that costs in losses and damages in the Philippines from 2010 to 2020 amounted to P506.1 billion. The government also says that from 2015 to 2022, it spent almost P2 trillion for disaster risk reduction and management. Money to fund adaptation, however, still falls short of what’s needed. A 2022 World Bank report projected that the Philippines can lose as much as 7.6% of GDP by 2030 and 13.6% by 2040 due to climate change.
“The corruption scandal puts Filipinos in a hopeless situation: not only is our climate financing woefully inadequate to avoid future losses, but also, more than half of what little allocation we have for climate action is potentially being stolen. Filipinos are left with pitiful change from the billions stolen by a few,” said Chua.
He elaborated that the government is applying for loans and grants to address losses and damages from climate disasters. “Given this filthy track record, what assurance does the Filipino people have that the money for climate adaptation won’t end up in the pockets of the greedy? Each new loan pushes us deeper into debt, while corruption drains the borrowed money that’s meant to protect us,” he said.
Corruption is a significant roadblock to climate action. The country can never achieve its climate targets if corruption is left to operate unchecked. Additionally, Greenpeace noted that the gargantuan budget for climate tagged-projects under the purview of the DPWH shows the government’s shortsighted overreliance on gray infrastructure for climate adaptation. The group says that the government must instead put its focus on implementing nature-based and community-led solutions, preserving watersheds, stopping mining and quarrying projects that destroy forests and rivers, putting an end to reclamation, and instituting a national ban on single use plastics such as sachets to ease flood problems in major urban areas.
“Massive corruption on flood control projects at a time of climate change, worsened by the continued extraction and operation of fossil fuel companies in the name of profit, is piling one injustice over another onto Filipino communities. Filipinos cannot continue to suffer the double burden of corruption and corporate impunity,” Chua added.
“The government must not be deaf to the outrage of Filipinos and must heed the call to exact accountability both from corrupt officials and contractors, as well as from giant fossil fuel companies who are amassing grotesque illegal wealth from people suffering climate impacts. Moreover, given the huge amount of losses the country is facing, the president will need to source funding that does not place any more burden on Filipinos such as in the form of reparations from climate polluters,” he adds.
