AFP uncovers 252 ‘ghost’ flood control projects

MANILA, Philippines — The Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) has so far found 252 non-existent or ghost projects across the country in its effort to help the Independent Commission for Infrastructure (ICI) in the investigation into flood control and other construction project anomalies.

According to armed forces spokesperson Col. Francel Margareth Padilla, AFP chief Gen. Romeo Brawner Jr. has attended ICI hearings as part of the technical working group on asset recovery and case build-up.

“He went there himself to show how the Armed Forces of the Philippines truly values the work of the ICI, so that we can put an end to this issue faster, pursuant to the collective sentiment of the public,” she said at a press briefing yesterday.

“There were 30,000 projects that were deemed for the Armed Forces and the PNP (Philippine National Police) collectively to inspect. From these 30,000 projects, 10,000 were already inspected from the side of the Armed Forces of the Philippines. And it turned out that a total of around 252 of those surveyed are ghost projects from 2016 to present,” Padilla added.

She said the ghost projects are located in various parts of the country, considering the nationwide deployment capabilities of the military, which is working on completing 20,000 more inspections with the PNP.

“We cannot really home in on a particular place or region, but rest assured that we will be giving the complete report to ICI for them to facilitate and fast-track their investigation,” she explained.

Padilla said the AFP will not stop until all 30,000 flood control and infrastructure projects are inspected in order to assist the ICI in its probe.