“Ghost,” or non-existent, projects have been hounding the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) even during the term of Sen. Mark Villar, who headed the agency during the Duterte administration, according to Senate President Pro Tempore Jinggoy Estrada.
Estrada, however, clarified that the DPWH secretary was often excluded from finalizing the details of infrastructure projects.
“Minsan hindi nalalaman ng secretary ‘yan, ‘yung mga nasa taas. Ang mga gumagawa ng pera, ‘yung mga nasa baba,” Estrada said in an interview on Bilyonaryo News Channel’s “On Point” program on Tuesday night.
‘Yung mga regional directors, district engineers, mga hindi na pinapaalam doon sa nakakataas. ’Yun ang naging sistema,” he claimed.
He further alleged that district engineers and regional directors collude with officials of the Commission on Audit (COA) to manipulate government projects.
“Hindi papayag ang COA na ‘yan kung wala silang matatanggap,” Estrada added.
At the Senate blue ribbon committee’s inaugural hearing on Tuesday, Public Works Secretary Manuel Bonoan admitted that some of the nearly P6-billion worth of flood control projects in Bulacan turned out to be “ghost projects,” or were never built at all.
Most of the non-existent projects were awarded to Waowao Builders Inc., owned by a certain Mark Allan Arevalo.
Source: ‘Ghost’ projects existed during Villar’s time in DPWH, Estrada says