When the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) announced two cases of the ghost projects in Bulacan costing 150 million pesos each, then Secretary Manuel Bonoan declared them to be isolated cases, meaning there were just a few of them, a careless exploit of a few DPWH personnel. His statement was clearly an effort to hide the widespread practice. I do not believe he was unaware of it.
It seemed like the usual exposes of corruption at DPWH. Nothing large to worry about.
As it turned out a few weeks later, he was dead wrong. As I observed in the way he faced Senators and Congressmen in their many hearings, he went to great length to explain that these exposes were nothing to worry about. These were just bad eggs, a few crooked men in his department.
He was dead wrong. Week after week, new ghost projects emerged. The “Isumbong Mo Sa Pangulo” website became a handy medium for submission of information from all regions over the Philippines. It also became a practical source of information accessible to everyone. It is Information Technology at work for the Filipino people. We do not have to write government agencies for the data we want. It is right there at our fingertips.
Bonoan’s isolated cases became the norm. Ghost projects, now joined by substandard projects became aplenty. Even projects in Region VIII joined the grim picture. There is a report of ghost projects in Eastern Samar that will be investigated by the newly-installed Independent Commission on Infrastructure.
And the way the media has handled the exposes gives the common man a source of information and a user for his own understanding of what is going on.
People are now more concerned about the way contractors, politicians and government personnel have enriched themselves from this corruption.
A picture showing millions of pesos in cash on top of a billiard table in a DPWH Office is a very powerful picture that easily convinces us about the widespread theft of people’s money that has been going on for years. It is such a long line, but this is just too much for us to take.
It tells us a million words. It is not an isolated tale.
Are there ghost projects and substandard projects in Leyte?
When this column was talking about the Tacloban Airport Development Project in 2023 up to June 2025 (when my term as a Private Sector Representative at the RDC ended), was I referring to violations of government policies pertaining to a major infrastructure project that can be covered by the investigations of the ICI?
This is a Department of Transportation project. Will Sec. Vince Dizon take this up with the ICI?
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