DPWH fires Bulacan engineer over P55-million ghost project; charges next
MANILA, Philippines — Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) Secretary Vince Dizon has dismissed Bulacan First District engineer Henry Alcantara, the official tagged in the P55-million ghost project that President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. inspected.
Alcantara came under fire after marking a riverwall project in Bulacan complete despite no infrastructure being finished in the area upon Marcos’ assessment.
“Today, I'm going to announce, number one, Henry Alcantara, effective today, is dismissed,” Dizon said in a media interview in Bulacan.
“Next week, I will ask the DPWH legal team to recommend filing charges, the appropriate charges against Henry Alcantara,” he added.
Assistant District Engineer Brice Ericson Hernandez and Engr. Jaypee Mendoza from the DPWH Bulacan 1st District Engineering Office will also be dismissed.
On Thursday, September 4, Dizon inspected a flood control project in Barangay Sipat, Plaridel, Bulacan.
The project cost around P96.5 million and was marked as finished by local DPWH officials.
However, a physical inspection of the area showed that it was still incomplete, with a backhoe still in the area.
Dizon called this ghost project “criminal.”
“Kasi hindi tao 'yung gumawa nito, hayop. Mga hayop ang gumawa nito, hindi siga tao. Para gawin nila ito sa kababayan natin,” Dizon said.
(Animals did this, not people. To be able to do this to our fellow countrymen.)
Alcantara has appeared in Congressional probes into the flood control controversies. In the House investigation, he admitted that he was negligent and that he did not go to the actual site to inspect it. The same went for other projects that were marked complete in Bulacan despite being unfinished.
- Latest
- Trending
