DPWH to restart project assessment

THE Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) said that it will restart its assessment of “ghost” or nonexistent flood control projects following reports of discrepancies in grid coordinates.

“Because the location coordinates were wrong, of course, the effect was that they mislead into the wrong locations. So, the effect of this is we have to start over,” Public Works Undersecretary Arthur V. Bisnar told the Senate Blue Ribbon panel on Monday, in mixed Filipino and English.

Senator Panfilo M. Lacson, who heads the panel, said last week that Malacañang received incorrect grid coordinates for thousands of flood control projects around the country, which led to an inaccurate report involving 421 “ghost” projects.

Mr. Bisnar said the Armed Forces of the Philippines and the Philippine National Police have already inspected about 10,238 projects out of the 30,000 flood control projects from 2016 to 2025.

“Of the 10,000 that they validated, the ones they declared nonexistent now are 252, so we have to come back to those,” Mr. Bisnar said.

Meanwhile, former DPWH Secretary Manuel M. Bonoan argued that the report he provided to the President was based on locational data in the Multi-Year Planning and Scheduling from the office of former Undersecretary Maria Catalina E. Cabral.

“I assured the President that it’s still in the same area, those projects. It’s still in the same area. It cannot be in any other area,” Mr. Bonoan told the hearing.

Mr. Lacson had earlier accused the former DPWH chief of deliberately providing incorrect coordinates to the President. 

Prosecutor General Richard Anthony D. Fadullon said that the delays in the flood control report would not have any effect on cases against those involved in the flood control scandal.

“As far as the cases that we have already and we are conducting investigations, it will not be affected,” he added.

In the same hearing, the Senate panel ordered the issuance of show-cause orders for ex-Party-list Rep. Elizaldy S. Co and his former security aide Orly Regala Guteza for not attending the committee hearing on Monday.

“In deference to the latest Supreme Court ruling, let’s first issue a show-cause order. If the response is unsatisfactory, we will cite them for contempt and eventually issue arrest warrants,” Mr. Lacson said.

The chamber had earlier sent a subpoena for Mr. Co and Mr. Guteza last week. — Adrian H. Halili