New witnesses on Taguig infrastructure projects surface – Lacson

MANILA, Philippines — New witnesses have approached the Office of the Ombudsman to detail the delivery of “boxes of money” tied to anomalous infrastructure projects in Taguig, Sen. Panfilo Lacson said yesterday, a day after Senate Minority Leader Alan Peter Cayetano returned home from Singapore.

Lacson said the witnesses disclosed details of the alleged payoffs, which are now being evaluated as part of the ombudsman’s fact-finding investigation.

“The latest development is that there are witnesses who approached the ombudsman and shared details of how boxes of money were delivered. One of the deliveries involved millions of pesos,” Lacson said in an interview over radio dzBB.

The probe stems from at least 45 case studies and official documents submitted by Lacson’s team, which alleged “systemic anomalies” in Taguig’s flood control infrastructure.

Lacson noted that at the current pace of the investigation, he expects the ombudsman to file charges against those involved before the end of the year.

He also bared new findings from the Philippine Reclamation Authority showing that unauthorized reclamation in Laguna de Bay along the Taguig segment has reached 170 hectares – double his initial estimate of 85 hectares.

The reclaimed area in Taguig accounts for nearly one-third of an estimated 560-hectare encroachment covering portions of the lake in Rizal and Laguna.

Lacson previously stated that at least P3.713 billion in public funds may have been wasted on flood mitigation projects along the lake that are now subject to government action.

He stressed that the national government should confiscate the prime property to help ease the ecological impact, but maintained that legal action must follow.