MANILA, Philippines — Sen. Panfilo “Ping” Lacson said that the “ghost hunt” mocked by Senate Minority Leader Alan Peter Cayetano has turned up numerous suspected "ghost" slope protection and flood mitigation projects along the Taguig River that the Office of the Ombudsman is now investigating.
Lacson issued the statement after Cayetano, in his latest livestream, likened Lacson’s efforts to probe anomalous infrastructure in Taguig to "a ghost hunt."
"It turned out that there were so many 'ghost' slope protection and flood mitigation projects along Taguig River. The Ombudsman is now investigating," Lacson said in a social media post on Saturday.
Lacson and his team submitted to the Office of the Ombudsman at least 45 case studies backed by official documents detailing "systemic anomalies" in flood control infrastructure projects.
The case studies include billing anomalies involving the use of duplicate or tampered photographs across different contractors to falsely claim project progress and justify payments.
In one case, two projects built by the same contractor appeared to overlap at exactly the same location.
Another project had no supporting records, raising questions about whether the project existed at all.
Records also showed deceptive project classifications in which land reclamation activities were presented as flood control projects.
In at least one project, full payouts were disbursed using fabricated billing documents for a nonexistent project located on illegally reclaimed land.
Lacson and Cayetano have been trading barbs over allegations involving flood control and land reclamation projects in Taguig, Cayetano’s political bailiwick.
Cayetano earlier accused Lacson of mounting a “demolition job,” “witch hunt” and “trial by publicity” against him.
Lacson also cited information that Taguig City personnel were arrested by police on Friday after they tried to prevent Office of the Ombudsman investigators in Taguig City.
The senator earlier cited reports that officials of various agencies, including the Philippine Reclamation Authority, had been harassed while taking action on reclamation activities in the area.
"The illegal reclamation is a separate case that they are also looking into, but its personnel were blocked by Taguig City Hall personnel who were arrested by the Philippine National Police Special Action Force Friday," Lacson said.
