President Marcos has reaffirmed that he personally saw unfinished and “ghost” flood control projects during his visit to Iloilo City in August, saying the findings have become part of the government’s expanding investigation into alleged anomalies in flood-control spending.

In his press conference on Thursday, Nov. 14, Marcos said he inspected several sites in Iloilo City and found flood mitigation works that were either abandoned, incomplete, or never started at all.

“Noong Agosto, personal kong nainspeksyon ang mga iba’t ibang flood control project. Napunta ako sa Iloilo, nakapunta ako sa Calumpit, at saka sa Baliwag (In August, I personally inspected various flood control projects. I went to Iloilo, Calumpit, and Baliwag),” he said.

“Doon maliwanag na maliwanag na mga halimbawa ng mga flood control project na hindi tinapos o ghost project talaga, hindi man naumpisahan at naging basehan ng ating tuloy-tuloy na pag-imbestiga (There we clearly saw examples of flood control projects that were not finished or were truly ghost projects, never even started. They became the basis of our continuing investigation),” he added.

Iloilo City Rep. Julienne “Jam-Jam” Baronda had already disputed President Marcos’ observations in September, saying she welcomes “any and all investigations” into the infrastructure projects in her district.

“I can assure everyone that the innuendos and assertions that there are ghost and substandard projects in the city whose funding requirements have been facilitated by this representation would be proven to be falsehoods,” she said.

The city reportedly secured more than P1.75 billion in flood-project funding since 2023, including nearly P1 billion for this year alone.

Three projects amounting to P425 million were listed under St. Timothy Construction Corp., while another P150-million project was listed under Alpha & Omega General Contractor & Development Corp. Both firms are linked to contractors Sarah and Curlee Discaya, who are subjects of ongoing inquiries into alleged irregularities in flood-control contracts.

Another project that has drawn attention is a reportedly unfinished 600-meter flood-mitigation structure in Bo. Obrero in Lapuz District, reported to be worth P400 million.

Baronda has said that “no project was identified as a ghost, and no project was indicated as nonfunctioning,” and urged the Commission on Audit to conclude its probe swiftly to show that the projects are “aboveboard and are not tainted with graft and corruption.”