Senate finance chair Sherwin Gatchalian flagged the involvement of flood control contractors Curlee and Sarah Discaya in the anomalous construction of hospital facilities during the Department of Health (DOH)’s budget deliberation yesterday.
Gatchalian lamented the wasted public funds in uncompleted or idle hospital facilities, citing a 2024 Commission on Audit (COA) report about 123 DOH contracts worth P11.5 billion not completed on time due to poor coordination, approval delays and changes in site locations, among others.
He said the average P100-million budget for the graft-tainted flood control projects could have been used for the construction of a new building for the children’s hospital.
‘This is P11.5 billion that we cannot use and got stuck, because of poor planning, lack of coordination and poor execution. We really need to spend our budget wisely,’ Gatchalian said.
Health Secretary Ted Herbosa mentioned the DOH’s ‘flood control version’ of the scandal, with 400 of their 600 health centers under its health facilities enhancement program left idle because of lack of health care personnel and delayed construction due to contractors’ lapses.
COA supervising auditor for DOH Ameer Gamama said Discaya’s firm St. Gerrard Construction was involved in a P133-million Zamboanga sanitarium project that was left idle despite being 98 percent complete and a P22.45-million DOH satellite project in Zamboanga del Norte that was completed but instead used as a classroom by the Mindanao State University.
Herbosa also lamented lawmakers’ practice of ‘budget insertions’ in the national outlay for DOH projects not part of its health facility development plan, resulting in poor planning and faulty or delayed construction.
Farm-to-market roads
The Department of Agriculture (DA) yesterday said its audit of farm-to-market roads has uncovered P115 million in ‘ghost’ projects from P75 million initially reported, adding to the roster of questionable government infrastructure flagged so far.
‘It’s not that big but it’s still alarming because why are there ghost projects,’ Agriculture Secretary Francisco Tiu Laurel Jr. told reporters on the sidelines of the opening day of the 47th meeting of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Ministers on Agriculture and Forestry (AMAF) at the Conrad Hotel in Pasay City.
He said his agency is coordinating with the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) and that he plans to personally visit the sites.
The agriculture official said the previous day that the contractors behind the P115 million in ‘ghost’ projects were not among the 15 firms earlier identified by President Marcos.
The DA launched the audit earlier this year after the Senate began looking into alleged irregularities in flood control projects, prompting the agency to scrutinize its own road programs.
The country still lacks about 62,000 kilometers of farm-to-market roads, according to the agriculture official, stressing the need to safeguard funds so these can be used for actual construction and improvements rather than lost to anomalies.
Investigate EDCA
Apart from anomalies in flood control projects, militant fishers’ group Pambansang Kilusang Mamamalakaya ng Pilipinas (Pamalakaya) said the government should also investigate DPWH’s budget allocation for a military site covered by the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement (EDCA).
Pamalakaya chairman Fernando Hicap said the DPWH’s Tatag ng Imprastraktura Para sa Kapayapaan at Seguridad appropriated P3 billion for various support of national security, including the expansion of an airstrip in the island town of Balabac in Palawan.
For Hicap, it is unacceptable that public funds are being used for an EDCA site that he said has no benefit for Filipinos and also puts the country’s security at risk.
Aside from the expansion of the Balabac airstrip, Hicap said the DPWH also provided funds to build a hangar at the Mactan-Benito Ebuen Air Base in Cebu and the construction of hangars and various military infrastructure at Fort Magsaysay in Nueva Ecija.
Instead of military bases, Hicap said government funds should be used to build infrastructure that will directly benefit people.
Removal of ethics
The Catholic Educators Association of the Philippines (CEAP) warned that corruption in the government would worsen amid the Department of Education (DepEd)’s proposal to remove the Ethics subject from the General Education (GE) curriculum of higher education institutions as the country is rocked by flood control scandal.
CEAP executive director Narcy Ador Dionisio said that ethics form the conscience of students.
‘Ethics is not optional. It is essential to look at what’s happening to our country today,’ Dionisio said.
‘Ethics forms the conscience of our students and without it, we risk producing graduates who may be competent but lack integrity. Academic knowledge without ethical grounding will never serve the common good,’ he added.
‘We’re talking about good people initially when they graduate from a Catholic school or other schools and eventually, they turn into thieves and this is the same reason why CEAP is firmly opposing the removal of Ethics in the general education curriculum,’ he noted. -Alden Monzon, Emmanuel Tupas, Bella Cariaso