Bonoan: P450 billion inserted in 2025 DPWH budget
MANILA, Philippines — Officials of the first district engineering office of the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) in Bulacan, including the former district engineer, have been relieved and placed on floating status, DPWH Secretary Manual Bonoan said yesterday.
In an interview with “Storycon” on One News, Bonoan said he has issued a show-cause order against former Bulacan first district engineer Henry Alcantara and other officials of the district engineering office to explain the alleged ghost flood control projects implemented by their office.
“I issued to them a few days ago a show-cause order based on especially the projects that the President went to see in San Miguel, Bulacan,” Bonoan said.
“I issued a show cause order for them to explain actually the status that were looked into by the President, as well as the other projects we have seen ourselves,” he added.
Appointed as officer-in-charge of Bulacan’s first district engineering office in 2019, Alcantara was promoted to OIC assistant regional director in Calabarzon in June. He was replaced in Bulacan’s first district by then assistant district engineer Brice Ericson Hernandez.
Hernandez, along with officials of the district office, was also reportedly relieved pending the investigation on issues surrounding flood control projects.
A special order issued by Bonoan on Aug. 11 designated Jayson Jauco, chief of DPWH Region III construction division, as concurrent DPWH Bulacan first district OIC.
Ghost projects
According to Bonoan, their ongoing investigation showed that ghost projects so far only exist in the mentioned district engineering office, which covers three legislative districts of the province.
He denied the claim of a barangay captain in Naujan, Oriental Mindoro that there are also ghost projects in the municipality, saying there might have been a “miscommunication” as to its location.
The DPWH secretary did not discount the possibility of ghost projects in other areas, but said they have already instructed the physical validation of all projects that were reported as completed since the President assumed office in 2022.
The main issue that they are looking at, he said, is the quality of these projects. “We have sent validation teams to see if the projects we have reported were present or absent. Most of these were present. Now, we’re undertaking financial and technical validations,” Bonoan said in English and Filipino.
He vowed to pursue charges against DPWH officials who will be found liable over issues on flood control. “We are not going to tolerate this kind of behavior in implementation of these projects.”
P450 billion insertions
Up to P450 billion, mostly for flood control projects, had been “inserted” in the DPWH budget this year, according to Bonoan.
“The amount of projects inserted, I think, is about P450 billion… P450 or P430 billion,” Bonoan said. “Out of that, P26 billion was vetoed by the President.”
While it is the DPWH that identifies and approves the plan for public works projects, he said this is only true for those that are included in the National Expenditure Program submitted by the executive to Congress.
“We don’t have any part in the projects that would be added to the budget of the department when they are inserted or added on in the bicameral conference committee and included in the General Appropriations Act,” Bonoan said.
“These are projects that have not been vetted in the field and that would be the only time that we knew about those projects. However, it’s already in the law and we have to implement it,” he said.
Bonoan said they brought this to the attention of President Marcos when they saw the version of the budget bill approved by Congress for 2025, an election year.
“This is the reason why he put on hold all these projects that were inserted,” Bonoan said. “Many of them are flood control… the others were for later release that was being scrutinized by the Office of the President.”
Magalong: No apology
Meanwhile, Baguio City Mayor Benjamin Magalong said lawmakers should not expect any public apology from him amid his tirades against corruption in government infrastructure projects.
“It should be you (congressmen) who should be apologizing to the people, not me. Excuse me, please. You are barking up the wrong tree,” Magalong said.
“I will not apologize to them. They should be the one apologizing for their deeds. They know that many of their colleagues are involved in corruption but they kept silent,” he said. “It is impossible that they knew nothing of what their colleagues did there.”
He issued the statement as House deputy speaker and Lanao del Sur 2nd district Rep. Yasser Balindong said Magalong should publicly apologize to the Moro people for describing the planned House investigation into flood control projects as a “moro-moro.”
“Mayor Magalong may raise his concerns, but to use ‘moro-moro’ as shorthand for sham or deception is unacceptable. The term is not harmless. It carries with it a legacy of distortion and vilification of the Moro people. To trivialize that history is deeply offensive,” Balindong said.
“An apology is necessary, not only to the House, but to the Moro people whose heritage was maligned,” he said.
Corruption crackdown
The League of Cities of the Philippines said it supports Marcos’ call for a full government accounting of flood control projects amid allegations of corruption among DPWH officials and private contractors.
“We commend the President’s directives and express our full support for the ongoing investigation into alleged anomalies in the implementation of substandard and so-called ‘ghost’ flood control projects,” San Juan Mayor and LCP president Francis Zamora said.
The Vice Mayors for Good Governance (VMGG) is also calling for transparency and accountability on alleged anomalous flood control projects.
Baliwag City Vice Mayor Ferdie Estrella said the vice mayors’ coalition was an offshoot of the Mayors for Good Governance group.
Based on the VMGG’s Facebook post yesterday, their 39 members nationwide had expressed deep concern over persistent reports of graft and corruption in the implementation of flood control projects. — Jose Rodel Clapano, Emmanuel Tupas, Ramon Efren Lazaro, Artemio Dumlao