1 week ago
10
Upgrade to High-Speed Internet for only ₱1499/month!
Enjoy up to 100 Mbps fiber broadband, perfect for browsing, streaming, and gaming.
Visit Suniway.ph to learn
Jean Mangaluz - Philstar.com
December 3, 2025 | 1:21pm
Workers use a backhoe as they continue digging through the Marikina River as part of the ongoing dredging project and flood mitigation plans of the local government on May 23, 2024.
The STAR / Miguel de Guzman
MANILA, Philippines — An estimated P180 billion has been lost to ghost flood control projects since 2016, according to Senate President Pro Tempore Ping Lacson on Wednesday, December 3.
In a radio interview, Lacson said he and Finance Chair Sen. Win Gatchalian estimated the number based on the flood control projects that have been inspected so far.
"We are looking at 30,000 flood control projects since 2016. If we extrapolate based on earlier findings that more than 600 out of 10,000 projects were ghost, Sen. Gatchalian and I estimated that 6% or higher of 30,000 projects could mean P180 billion or higher went to ghost projects,” Lacson said in a mix of English and Filipino.
"Imagine, we likely lost P180 billion to ghost projects and we have not yet started counting our losses to substandard projects," he added.
The Senate Blue Ribbon Committee has been investigating anomalous flood control projects, with the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) Bulacan First District serving as a case study of how corruption allegedly operates from the local level up to the national level.
Tiny retribution. Former DPWH Bulacan First District Engineer Henry Alcantara recently returned P110 million in plundered funds and is set to return an additional P200 million.
Lacson described the amount as a “pittance.”
The exact value of losses tied to the DPWH scheme remains unknown, though government probes have placed the amount in the billions.
The DPWH has so far identified at least 421 ghost flood control projects out of the 8,000 it has inspected so far.
