P79B likely lost to ghost flood control projects – Lacson

By Leonel Abasola, Philippine News Agency

Senator Panfilo Lacson (Senate of the Philippines/facebbok)

MANILA – Senate President Pro Tempore Panfilo Lacson said Wednesday that more than PHP79 billion has likely been lost to ghost flood control projects since 2016.

Lacson said he and Senate Finance Committee Chair Sherwin Gatchalian based their estimate on nearly 10,000 projects inspected so far, where more than 600 were found to be ghost or nonexistent.

“Right now, ang huling computation namin, nasa (our last computation was at) PHP79 billion,” he said in a media interview.

“Ghost pa lang ‘yan, wala pang substandard. Wala pa itong mga road projects. Wala pa itong multi-purpose buildings. Flood control pa lang ‘yan (That’s only for ghost projects. They do not yet include substandard [projects], road projects, and multi-purpose buildings),” he added.

In his previous privilege speeches, Lacson detailed the corruption behind substandard and ghost flood control projects.

He shared his observations that the PHP110 million “returned” by former Department of Public Works and Highways district engineer Henry Alcantara last week was a “pittance,” even if he is expected to return an additional PHP200 million in the coming weeks.

Lacson said the Blue Ribbon panel remains ready to help relevant agencies, such as the Independent Commission for Infrastructure (ICI), the Department of Justice (DOJ), and the Office of the Ombudsman, in pursuing charges against those involved, if it gets new information.

“If new information is brought before the Committee, hopefully we can help the ICI, Ombudsman, and DOJ,” he said in a news release.

He said the Senate has begun undoing some of the practices related to the anomalous flood control projects with its efforts to ensure transparency in crafting the national budget.

The measures, including livestreaming the period of amendments and making public all senators’ individual amendments, should block allocables, leadership funds, and other forms of pork barrel in the 2026 budget, he added.

“There will be no room for allocables because we made the process transparent,” he said.

He said they introduced individual amendments on the floor, unlike in the past when lawmakers just wrote their amendments on paper and passed them to the finance committee chair.

Lacson said the majority bloc has decided to entrust and fully support Gatchalian on which amendments to accept and reject.

The Senate and House of Representatives, he said, have agreed to simplify the bicameral conference committee proceedings, to tackle only the disagreeing provisions of the Senate and House versions of the budget bill, and not any “alien” provision inserted into either version.