SENATE Minority Leader Alan Peter Cayetano has questioned the Department of Public Works and Highways’ (DPWH) decision to conduct another verification of alleged ghost projects in Taguig after earlier reviews by the agency found no ghost projects in the city.
Cayetano, in a Facebook livestream on July 20, expressed hope that Public Works Secretary Vivencio Dizon ‘would stand by the department’s earlier findings,’ recalling that ‘the secretary had told me on three separate occasions’ that Taguig’s projects had already been verified
‘I hope he will not allow himself to be pressured and I hope he tells the truth because he had told me three times already that they verified, and determined there are noghost projects in Taguig,’ he said, partly in Filipino.
Cayetano said it does not make sense for him to push for continued Senate hearings on alleged flood control anomalies while ignoring alleged irregularities involving flood control projects in Taguig.
‘It’s so illogical that I am fighting for the truth and for the Blue-Ribbon [committee] hearing tapos meron pala kaming problema sa sarili naming bakuran [and then it turns put I have a problem in my backyard],’ he said.
Cayetano also recalled proposing during the DPWH budget deliberations that all government infrastructure projects be documented through photographs from groundbreaking to completion, saying the measure would make ghost projects easier to detect and improve transparency in public works implementation.
‘When he was in the DPWH budget hearing here, I told him, ‘Sec. Vince, why don’t you have someone take photos by cellphone of all the projects? Start with . 2025, 2024, 2023, then backwards. So that, if from the cellphone alone we find out a project has been paid for but there is no structure, that’s ghost,’ he said.
He said he later followed up the proposal on the Senate floor and noted that Taguig had already adopted the practice.
Cayetano called for ghost project allegations to be investigated across all localities instead of focusing on Taguig alone, maintaining that any investigation should apply the same standard to everyone.
‘Isabay-isabay na natin kung gusto [If they wish, let’s take it up altogether] but don’t single people out. From the start I have said, investigate everybody,’ he said.