4 DPWH engineers sacked over kickbacks, falsification

MANILA, Philippines — The Department of Public Works and Highways has relieved four DPWH district engineers from their posts over alleged corruption, extortion of kickbacks and submission of falsified project readiness documents.

Public Works Secretary Giovanni Lopez relieved district engineers Hermon Ines of DPWH Tarlac 1st District Engineering Office, Saidale Mitmug of Cotabato 3rd DEO, Clifton Valencerina who is the acting officer-in-charge of Apayao 2nd DEO and Amron Mitmug of the Lanao del Norte 2nd DEO.

In separate memoranda, Lopez said Ines and Saidale were suspended over allegations of corruption.

Lopez said Valencerina was given the same sanction over extortion of “SOP” – standard operating procedure – a euphemism for payoff or grease money from projects.

Amron, on the other hand, reportedly committed project certification irregularities.

According to Lopez, a central office audit revealed that Amron submitted false supporting documents and signed Certificates of Implementability for 59 projects under the proposed 2027 budget that were actually unimplementable.

“We are currently preparing the budget and we have consistently emphasized that project proposals submitted for inclusion must meet all prerequisites, including the Certificate of Implementability. This official simply signed off on them, but when we evaluated the submissions, it turned out that 59 projects were not implementable at all,” Lopez told reporters after an inspection of flood control projects in Calumpit, Bulacan yesterday morning.

Lopez warned field officials against treating technical pre-construction certifications as mere administrative paperwork.

“That requirement is not a trivial matter. That is precisely why we demand that implementing offices – the RDs (regional directors), DEs (district engineers) and ADEs (assistant DEs) – personally certify that a project is truly implementable so that once funds are released, we can immediately execute,” Lopez said.

The discovery of non-compliant projects prompted former DPWH secretary Vince Dizon to write to the Senate, recommending the deletion of 295 line items worth P8.8 billion from the proposed budget plan.

Lopez stressed that his administration will enforce the “one-strike policy” introduced by Dizon across all DPWH offices.