COA flags P275 million worth of anomalous flood control projects in Bulacan

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February 13, 2026 | 5:37pm

MANILA, Philippines — The Commission on Audit (COA) on Friday, February 13, announced that it filed four more fraud audit reports (FAR) detailing anomalous flood control projects amounting to P275 million in Bulacan. 

Prior to this, the COA had already filed a set of reports regarding anomalous flood control projects in Bulacan amounting to P297 million, following this with another set worth P325 million. 

The COA flagged ghost projects, unauthorized relocations, payments for existing structures, and deficiencies in documentation. 

“COA found no flood control or riverbank protection structures at the approved project sites, despite official documents declaring the projects completed or substantially accomplished,” the Commission said in a statement. 

In this latest round of reports, the contractors implicated were the usual suspects: SYMS Construction Trading and Wawao Builders. Both of these firms were already implicated during the first wave of corruption allegations in 2025. 

For SYMS, two Bulacan projects were flagged, one in Hagonoy and the other in Pandi. The Hagonoy project, which cost P67.54 million, was determined to have been constructed in a location outside of the one designated in the Detailed Engineering Design Plans. 

The same also happened for the planned flood control project in Pandi, which cost P39.58 million. 

Meanwhile, Wawao Builders were also supposed to build two flood control projects: one in Baliuag that cost P72.37 million and the other one in Plaridal that cost P96.49 million. 

The Baliuag project was built in an area outside of the one determined in the plans, and it bore resemblance to a different project. 

In the Plaridel project, the COA determined that there was already a pre-existing flood control project where the initiative was supposed to have been built.  

Former Department of Public Works and Highways engineers Henry Alcantara, Jaypee Mendoza, Bricer Hernandez, and other agency officials are considered liable for these ghost projects, alongside other agency officials and the contractors Sally Santos of SYMS, as well as Mark Allan Arevalo of Wawao Builders. 

“Those involved may be held liable for graft and corrupt practices under the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act, and for malversation and falsification of documents under the Revised Penal Code. Possible violations of COA Circular No. 2009-001 were also identified,” the commission said.