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Senator Panfilo “Ping” Lacson on Tuesday welcomed the clarification made by Public Works Secretary Vince Dizon regarding his earlier “categorical” statement denying the existence of ghost flood control projects in Taguig City.
“Thank you, Sec. Vince, for the clarification. I agree that preliminary inspection findings on several questionable flood control projects in Taguig—such as those on St. Timothy’s slope protection project—do not automatically prove a project was ‘ghosted,’ but we also cannot definitively conclude that no ‘ghost projects’ exist,” Lacson said on X, formerly Twitter.
Lacson warned Dizon on Monday against engaging in a cover-up of the alleged ghost projects in Taguig after being informed that the DPWH website was down when reporters tried to verify details he provided regarding the infrastructure projects he flagged as questionable.
The warning followed Dizon’s statement that there were no ghost projects in Taguig when he was questioned by Senator Alan Peter Cayetano during the DPWH’s budget deliberations in the Senate.
“Wala po. Sa aming imbestigasyon, wala po [There is none. Based on our investigation, there is none],” Dizon told Cayetano.
This was then followed by DPWH Undersecretary Ricardo Bernabe III’s statement that the agency has listed 107 projects in Taguig so far, all of which have documented accomplishments.
Lacson described Dizon’s initial response during the hearing as “categorical,” saying Dizon later explained to him in a phone call that he did not mean his answer that way and that he felt set up.
Look at the context
Earlier Monday, Dizon clarified his response, emphasizing that his statement must be understood within the context of the question, which specifically asked about conclusively proven ghost projects—of which Taguig has none.
“Tinanong ako, ilan na ba ang conclusive? Ang conclusive sa Tagalog [ay] sigurado na ghost project sa buong bansa. Ang sagot namin sampu,” Dizon said.
(I was asked, how many are conclusive? Conclusive in Tagalog means confirmed ghost projects nationwide. Our answer was ten.)
“Ang follow-up question doon, meron bang Taguig projects doon sa sampung conclusive na ghost projects na nahanap na ng DPWH na sigurado? Ang sagot ko wala po. Totoo naman ‘yon eh na wala talaga doon sa 10 na conclusive o siguradong ghost project na naka-locate sa Taguig. ‘Yun ang full context noon,” he added.
(The follow-up question was, are there any Taguig projects among the ten conclusive ghost projects that the DPWH has confirmed? My answer was none. That is true—there are none in the list of 10 conclusive or confirmed ghost projects located in Taguig. That is the full context of it.)
However, Dizon acknowledged and confirmed that the agency is currently investigating and validating several projects in Taguig that were flagged as questionable or suspected of having irregularities, including those raised by Lacson.
He noted that the investigations into the projects have just begun and were recently submitted to the Office of the Ombudsman for further validation, urging everyone not to jump to conclusions while the probe remains ongoing.
“Tuloy-tuloy pa rin ‘yon at hintayin natin ang final, kasi kailangan ‘yan i-validate, kailangan ‘yan ibangga sa iba’t iba pang mga dokumento at kailangan ‘yan i-verify din onsite,” Dizon said.
(That is still ongoing, and let us wait for the final outcome because those need to be validated, cross-referenced with various other documents, and verified onsite.)
“So siguro, ‘wag muna tayong gumawa ng conclusions kasi ongoing pa ‘yung investigation non,” he added.
(So perhaps we should not jump to conclusions yet because the investigation is still ongoing.) — BM, GMA News
