Officials find ‘most expensive’ flood control project in Bulacan
BULAKAN, BULACAN—The ghost flood control project in this town cited in the Senate blue ribbon committee hearing over a week ago that was worth P193 million, was not only the most expensive so far of five found in the province, but also would not have benefitted any community even if it had been built, according to local officials.
A fact-finding team composed of National Bureau of Investigation agents and Bulakan officials who inspected the site along the Maycapiz-Taliptip River in Barangay Perez found no community that would be protected from the floods in the area, which is about 500 meters to a kilometer from the New Manila International Airport being built by San Miguel Corp.
The work on the two “packages” comprising the river dike was supposed to have started in December last year by SYMS Construction Trading, one of the country’s biggest flood control contractors identified by President Marcos, and was fully paid after public works officials reported it “completed” in April this year, the officials said.
They said that the surrounding communities had been abandoned by villagers after San Miguel bought their lands for the Bulacan aerocity complex before the company signed a 50-year concession agreement with the Department of Transportation to build new airport.
Crumbling structure
What they and the NBI agents found were crumbling cement works held together by thin steel rebars that were far apart.
The inspection team found that work for Package A was only “resurrected” after the President’s State of the Nation Address on July 28, where he denounced flood control project anomalies.
It was hastily restarted, with some workers even caught on site slapping cement on a hollowed out retaining wall.
Package B was totally nonexistent. The only structure there was the bamboo dike that had been built by San Miguel to which a portion of Package A was connected.
Rommel Abang, the foreman of a sub-contractor hired by SYMS to build Package A and who was with workers caught cementing the crumbling section of the river wall, told the fact-finding team that the instruction given to them was to build a 90-meter and a 120-meter long dikes.
‘Cooked three ways’
But Bulakan Councilor Aina Pagsibigan, a member of the inspection team, said the documents obtained by the municipal government showed that Packages A and B were each supposed to be 145 meters in length.
She said that the people and the government were “cooked three ways” by the anomaly – first by the absence of any beneficiary, second by the truncated length of the would-be dike and third by the very poor workmanship.
Municipal Engineer Emmie Fernando also said that as far as Package B was concerned, “it is really a ghost project.”
Fernando used the longitude and latitude points to locate the two packages from DPWH records they had obtained.
The project briefer for Package B indicated that its funding was from the “Unprogrammed Appropriations in 2024.”
Rudthen Mendoza, supervising agent of NBI Bulacan, said their findings proved without a doubt the existence of another ghost flood control project in the province.
‘Almost ghost’
On Aug. 15, the President found “almost ghost” flood control projects in Calumpit that were awarded to Wawao Builders and Construction and St. Timothy Construction Corporation, who were paid P77.2 million and P96.5 million, respectively.
Five days later, he found another ghost flood control project in Barangay Piel in Baliwag, built for P55.7 million by SYMS.
On Sept. 4, Public Works Secretary Vince Dizon discovered a nonexistent flood control project in Sipat, Plaridel, that cost P96.5 million awarded to Wawao.
Henry Alcantara, the dismissed head of DPWH Bulacan First District Engineering Office, is now among 25 people that included DPWH personnel and the owners of SYMS, Wawao, and St. Timothy who are facing a graft complaint filed by the DPWH.
