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Manila Bulletin devider Philippines devider National devider Lacson on gov't infra progra corruption: It's easier to spot the 'not guilty' ones

Lacson on gov't infra progra corruption: It's easier to spot the 'not guilty' ones

Published Oct 9, 2025 03:27 pm

At A Glance

  • The senator said that with corruption running deep in the government's infrastructure program—from flood control projects to farm-to-market roads—it is now easier to distinguish who are not involved in the anomalies.
It is easier to know those who are not guilty than those who are when it comes to assessing the number of government officials involved in corruption, Senate President Pro Tempore Panfilo “Ping” Lacson said on Thursday, October 9.
Lacson said this after he and his staff reviewed “classified” documents of the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) which he earlier flagged for systematic anomalies in substandard and ghost flood control programs.
The senator said with corruption running deep in the government’s infrastructure program—from flood control projects to farm-to-market roads—it is now easier to distinguish who are not involved in the anomalies.
“Reviewing the piles of 'classified' DPWH documents which I shared with my staff, we all wondered aloud if the more appropriate question to ask is, 'Who is not?' rather than, 'Who is guilty?'. So sad to realize how widely corrupt our government infrastructure program has gone,” Lacson said in a post on X.
https://twitter.com/iampinglacson/status/1976114185793896456
Lacson pointed to DPWH Secretary Vince Dizon's initial findings that at least 421 out of some 8,000 flood control projects inspected by the DPWH, Department of Economy, Planning and Development (DepDev), Philippine National Police (PNP) and Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) were “ghost” projects.
He also included Sen. Sherwin Gatchalian’s findings that over P10 billion worth of farm-to-market roads (FMRs) programmed under the 2023 and 2024 national budgets have been “extremely overpriced," with at least one project costing 23 times more than the standard price set by the DPWH and others with markups of up to 70 percent.
In a press briefing at the Senate, Gatchalian said he would recommend to the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee and the Independent Commission for Infrastructure (ICI) to investigate the alleged overpriced FMR projects in the country.
“I would personally recommend to the blue ribbon committee to look into these FMRs because the contractors were the same. I will also recommend that the ICI look into these FMR projects precisely because they are so overpriced,” Gatchalian said at the Kapihan sa Senado.
“From P15,000 per meter, it ballooned to P300,000 per meter. The overpricing was really so extreme,” he pointed out.
Gatchalian added that three contractors in the Top 10 list of “extremely overpriced” FMR projects, were also included in the list of contractors that bagged 20 percent of the total P545 billion budget of flood control projects which President Marcos Jr. disclosed last August.
One of these three contractors, the Hi-Tone Construction & Development Corp., is allegedly linked to former Ako Bicol Party-list Representative and House appropriations committee chairperson Zaldy Co, the senator noted.
“We can see that the contractors in flood control projects are not limited to flood control. They also have FMR projects, so I think they are also involved in road and irrigation projects,” he said.

Related Tags

ping lacson flood control probe Senate Blue Ribbon Committee ICI farm-to-market roads Sherwin Gatchalian
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