2024 budget ‘bicam’ members face scrutiny for ‘ghost’ project
The chair of the House infrastructure committee (infracomm) on Saturday said former members of the congressional bicameral committee that deliberated last year’s budget would be invited to an ongoing corruption inquiry to determine who may have inserted a P96.5-billion flood control project in Bulacan that was fully paid but wasn’t built.
Bicol Saro Rep. Terry Ridon said that the “ghost” project did not appear in both the House’s 2024 General Appropriations Bill (GAB) and the National Expenditure Program (NEP) from Malacañang, which is the government’s spending blueprint for the year on which the proposed budget is based.
“The implication of this is that that particular line item was inserted by a member of the Senate or by a member of Congress during the bicameral conference committee,” he said during a press conference.
“So, the investigative logic of the committee would be to ask the members of the bicameral conference committee of 2024, if they know who inserted this, who proposed this line item.”
Three-panel inquiry
Ridon is leading a three-panel inquiry into corruption-tainted flood control projects triggered by President Marcos’ State of the Nation Address (Sona).
The infracomm is composed of the committees on public accounts, which is headed by Riddon, good government and public works and highways.
After his Sona, Mr. Marcos disclosed that more than P100 billion, or about 18 percent, of the P545 billion spent to control floods from 2022 to 2025 had been awarded to only 15 of over 2,000 contractors nationwide.
Malacañang later said the President would form an independent commission to investigate the irregular flood control projects around the country.
The former bicam members to be invited would likely include former House appropriations chair and Ako Bicol Rep. Elizaldy Co and former Senate finance chair Sonny Angara, now the education secretary. They led their respective chambers’ contingent in the bicameral deliberations tasked with reconciling their versions of the national budget bill.
The nonexistent, or “ghost” project in Bulacan, that Ridon was referring to was found by Public Works Secretary Vince Dizon along a portion of the Angat River in Plaridel town last week.
The contractor responsible for the project was identified as Wawao Builders, which reported the project completed “100 percent” in June 2024 and got full payment the following month.
Work started just recently
But during his visit to the site, Dizon was informed by village officials that work on the project began only three weeks earlier, around the time that Mr. Marcos called out contractors for their sloppy or nonexistent projects.
Wawao was among the top 15 contractors that the President had identified.
Dizon took over the public works portfolio from Manuel Bonoan, who resigned last week. He vowed that “the animals” responsible for ghost projects would be jailed.
Ridon said the invitation for the ex-bicam members would be made in “two or three weeks” as the next infracomm hearing set on Sept. 9 would focus on the nine-company Discaya empire, whose licenses were revoked by the Philippine Contractors’ Accreditation Board (PCAB) for supposedly bidding for the same projects despite having identical beneficial owners.
He said the infracomm was initially not keen on inviting Co—who is linked to flood control contractor Sunwest Inc.—if the issue was his involvement in questionable budget insertions in the 2025 budget.
Last-minute insertions
Co has been accused by other lawmakers, including Navotas Rep. Toby Tiangco and Davao Rep. Isidro Ungab, of being behind last-minute insertions and realignments in the DPWH budget for 2025.
For Ridon, it “was irrelevant to invite him (at the time) because it is not germane to the inquiry that’s focused on anomalous, substandard, and ghost flood control projects.”
“But the difference now is that this is a budget insertion relating to a ghost project,” he said.
House spokesperson Princess Abante said that Co had obtained travel clearance from the House to undergo a medical procedure in the United States.
Who were they?
Ridon said the bicam members, as sitting lawmakers, and Angara, as a Cabinet member, would receive parliamentary courtesy. He did not elaborate.
On Nov. 30, 2023, the bicameral conference committee started deliberations on the proposed P5.768-trillion national budget for 2024.
The Senate panel included Senators Loren Legarda, Christopher Lawrence “Bong” Go, Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa, Joseph Victor “JV” Ejercito, and Risa Hontiveros. There were three others who had since left the Senate—Cynthia Villar, Francis “Tol” Tolentino, and Nancy Binay.
The House panel was composed of now Finance Secretary Ralph Recto, House Minority Leader Marcelino Libanan, Senior Deputy Speaker David “Jay-Jay” Suarez, Butuan City Rep. Jose “Joboy” Aquino II, Romblon Rep. Eleandro Jesus Madrona, as well as then Representatives Stella Luz Quimbo, Aurelio “Dong” Gonzales Jr., Manuel Jose “Mannix” Dalipe, Neptali Gonzalez II, and Raul Angelo “Jil” Bongalon.
The bicam approved the final version of the P5.768-trillion budget on Dec. 11, 2023. The President signed it into law on Dec. 20, 2023.
The DPWH was allocated P996.79 billion, higher than the initial P822.2-billion proposal. Four months earlier, the budget department said the DPWH intended to use P215 billion for flood prevention.
Ridon said the infracomm would again summon former Bulacan first district engineer Henry Alcantara to ask whether he was the proponent of public works that turned out to be ghost projects and whether he had help from anyone from the House or the Senate to insert them into the NEP.
Negligent
During the first infracomm hearing, Alcantara admitted proposing the P55-million reinforced river wall structure at Barangay Piel in Baliwag, Bulacan, into the NEP. It turned into another ghost project.
He admitted that he was negligent when he signed the completion certificates for the project, merely relying on the reports from his staff that it was finished.
Asked what would happen to the separate House and Senate inquiries once Mr. Marcos sets up the independent investigation commission, Ridon said the two chambers should decide “jointly on whether to step back, to suspend proceedings and to refer everything” to the commission. —WITH A REPORT FROM INQUIRER RESEARCH
