32 ghost projects, 32 dormant committees blamed on Cayetano

Senate Minority Leader Alan Cayetano is being blamed for 32 ghost public works. He is also being blamed for the dormancy of 32 Senate committees.

The two issues are joined.

The 32 fake flood works are in Cayetano’s Taguig home city. All are labeled “slope protection and mitigation,” Majority Senator Panfilo Lacson said. Some are for around P100 million each, totaling P2.385 billion from Cayetano’s P6.79-billion insertion in the 2025 national budget.

“Bulacan is the microcosm of flood project anomalies. Taguig is something else – employing old and new tricks, passing off illegal reclamations as slope protection, ghost projects, double appropriations, recycled photos from past completed contracts to bill and collect for new ones – all controlled by one person, dating as far back as 2019,” Lacson posted on X.

Cayetano took offense, saying that phantom works worsened floods in Bulacan, while there’s none in Taguig.

Lacson alleged plunder, malversation, graft and corruption. “We turned over to the Office of the Ombudsman for their further evaluation and motu proprio investigation all documentary and testimonial evidence, official records from government websites, while others were supplied by reliable sources. From 2020-2025, Taguig accumulated P14.4B worth of infra projects and still counting.”

Among the contracts are P94-million flood control in Barangay Lower Bicutan, P49.9-million multipurpose building at the Lakeshore Complex reclamation, P94-million Laguna Lakeshore improvement, and two rehab works each worth P141.8 million at Phases 4 and 5.

Lacson avoided linking Cayetano’s wife Laarni who is on her fifth term as Taguig mayor, 2025-2028. She was four-time mayor in 2010-2019 and 2022-2025.

Cayetano’s estranged brother Lino tipped off Lacson about other details. Lino was Taguig congressman in 2013-2016 and mayor in 2019-2022. He now chairs government-owned People’s Television Network.

Taguig proceeded with reclamation on its own and sold segments to private buyers without Philippine Reclamation Authority consent. PRA is to seize large portions of the Laguna de Bay reclamation, Lacson told DZBB Sunday.

Last Tuesday, Cayetano did not attend the Senate impeachment hearing in the morning and plenary in the afternoon.

Majority Senator Raffy Tulfo complained about inability to convene three committees that he chairs – Environment, Migrant Workers, Public Services. He said that’s because Cayetano refuses to nominate Minority senators as members.

Angry words were exchanged with Alan’s sister Minority Senator Pia Cayetano. She said Tulfo should have approached her to inquire about the committee memberships instead of resorting to dramatics. She added that Alan wasn’t there because feeling under the weather.

The previous day, Alan had said on a Facebook video that he showered in the cold rain Sunday. Though absent from the Senate on Tuesday, he broadcast from home on Facebook about “purpose in politics and in faith.”

Senate President Sherwin Gatchalian confirmed that 32 of 41 standing committees have been sleeping because of no members from the Minority.

Among these committees are the powerful Blue Ribbon which investigates graft and corruption, and Foreign Affairs which is the sole purview of the Senate.

Also Education, Health, Science and Technology, Public Works, Defense, Agriculture, and Transportation which are to receive bulk of the 2027 national budget.

Committee hearings scrutinize budget details before submission to the plenary.

As far back as June 3, Raffy’s brother Majority Senator Erwin Tulfo complained that he too couldn’t convene the Blue Ribbon Committee that he chairs. Cayetano allegedly was delaying to nominate four Minority senators as members. Yet the Minority was heckling Tulfo for supposed refusal to continue investigating the P1.7-trillion flood works scandal.

On July 29, Lacson posted on X: “The public may partake of the ‘delicious’ part if they watch the Blue Ribbon Committee hearings – details of the truth behind the 5 Taguig case studies we submitted to the Ombudsman.”

Yet the previous day, Erwin accused the Minority of attempting to prevent the Blue Ribbon from proceeding with the probe.

Asked who from the Minority was seeking to stop the hearing, Erwin avoided naming names but said, “Obvious. Who is being investigated? Who is Senator Lacson targeting?”

Cayetano was Senate President from May 11 to June 3 – 23 working days. For five days thereafter, he boycotted the plenary while broadcasting daily on Facebook to forestall his ouster.

Cayetano reappeared at the Senate with unkempt beard and mustache.

On July 20, Erwin told podcaster Christian Esguerra: “I think he started this actuation nu’ng matanggal siya as Senate President. Nag-iba ang takbo ng isip ni Senator Alan. Kaya nga ipinagdadasal ko na lang na sana bumalik pa sa katinuan.

“Tignan mo pati ang postura niya. Hindi na nag-aahit. Hindi mo na maintindihan. Parang taong-grasa na. ‘Yong porma niya, pati ‘yong mga pananalita niya, parang out of the blue biglang mag-snap na lang ng ganun.”

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