Lacson to Dizon: Prove zero Taguig ghost projects

MANILA, Philippines — Sen. Panfilo Lacson yesterday challenged Public Works Secretary Vince Dizon to prove that there are no ghost projects in Taguig, noting that the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH)’s own records show one of the city’s project sites geotagged in Leyte province, which is 600 kilometers away from Taguig.

Lacson said this contradicted Dizon’s assurance to Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano during Friday’s budget hearing that there were no “ghost projects” in Taguig – the bailiwick of the Cayetanos.

In a post on X, Lacson presented a DPWH site inspection report for Contract ID 220B0106 and demanded an explanation.

“Sec. Vince Dizon, please explain how this finding of your own team should not be flagged as a ghost project in Taguig. (Since when has Taguig been located in Leyte?)” Lacson asked.

The inspection document explicitly noted that geotagged photographs attached to the project’s billing reports contained coordinates pointing outside verified limits, reflecting metadata located approximately 600 kilometers away in Leyte.

Lacson highlighted that the project was awarded to St. Timothy Construction, a firm owned by the Discaya family that has previously been linked to controversial flood control projects. 

According to financial records cited by Lacson, the geographic anomalies began with a 15-percent advance payment of P13.73 million released on June 23, 2022, backed entirely by photographs geotagged in Tacloban City, Leyte.

Subsequent multimillion-peso progress billings were then processed either without photographs or geographical metadata. 

A July 2022 partial billing of P37.16 million had no attached images, while two separate billings in September 2022 totaling over P40 million featured images with completely stripped coordinates.

A final billing of P18.96 million processed in February 2023 also lacked verifiable location data.

The DPWH’s internal inspection report ultimately confirmed that the coordinates indicated in the photos attached to the progress and final billings did not correspond with the actual project site.