SEN. Panfilo Lacson on Friday hinted at more “damning evidence” in the investigation into ghost infrastructure projects in Taguig City, following the identification of more bagmen and other new findings.
In a statement posted on his social media, Lacson said the “list lengthens,” and the “case strengthens” as he gave updates on the progress of his investigation into public works projects in Taguig, the political bailiwick of Senate Minority Leader Alan Peter Cayetano.
“TAGUIG GHOST INRA PROJECTS UPDATE #3: There is too much damning (evidence). The plot thickens. The list lengthens. The case strengthens,” Lacson said.
“Kung merong ‘shoot sa balde,’ meron ding SHOOT SA KALDERO (If there’s such a thing as ‘shooting into a bucket,’ there’s also SHOOTING INTO THE COOKING POT),” he said.
The word “kaldero” was used as a satirical mock and political joke by critics and netizens to lampoon the P50-million 2019 Southeast Asian Games cauldron, which they likened to an overpriced household cooking pot.
National Bureau of Investigation Director Melvin Matibag earlier said the agency will also examine the cauldron after then-Senate Minority Leader Franklin Drilon questioned its cost.
Matibag said the planned investigation was prompted by newly obtained documents, and not directed at Cayetano.
Lacson had flagged what he described as a possible “double appropriation” involving two P100-million allocations that appeared to cover the same slope protection project in Taguig.
In a radio interview on Friday, Lacson said the latest findings include the identification of more bagmen for the projects.
He also said the evidence provided by informants so far indicate more than one person could be implicated in the anomalous projects.
“Long story short, if we summarize this, this is a work in progress, and the progress seems good,” he said.
Lacson also disclosed that he has found additional questionable slope protection projects, many of them worth P100 million each, bringing the total value of the questionable projects they have identified to P3.385 billion.
He said that two of the projects carried the same location and description, raising concerns that one project may have been funded twice.
“One project was funded twice. It may not be outright illegal but if payment was collected for both, one is a ghost project. If one was not implemented, where did the P100 million appropriation for it go?” Lacson said.
Other findings include defective projects that had overlapping spans that appeared to allow room for kickbacks.
Lacson said he is considering transmitting the evidence to the Ombudsman for faster investigation - and filing cases with the Ombudsman if the evidence is strong enough.
“If we course it through the Blue Ribbon Committee, there would be a long ‘discussion,’ and the resource persons could be harassed,” he said.
Lacson also reiterated that while he is prioritizing the projects in Taguig after Cayetano attacked his integrity, he and his team are not singling out Taguig.
“We always had the records on questionable projects in Taguig City, but we had to initially focus on Bulacan and Occidental Mindoro, and other areas. Now that Cayetano attacked my integrity, I instructed my staff to focus on Taguig because Cayetano has been making noise while trying to appear clean while making baseless accusations against me,” Lacson said.
Cayetano denied Lacson’s allegation, saying the projects had been inspected multiple times.
On his Facebook livestream, Cayetano said initial checks on city projects showed no evidence of ghost infrastructure and that all works went through proper bidding and validation.
“Well, the allegations are general. They said there is a ghost project in Taguig, and we’ve checked. Remember, the national projects are from the national government. Theoretically, the senator, congressman should have nothing to do with it,” Cayetano said.
“But of course, we saw there in the Blue Ribbon Committee that there was indeed a conspiracy or interference. Having said that, I do as a habit check as much as I can projects,” he said.
Cayetano said he found no ghost flood control projects in Taguig.
“The ones we saw had problems, we reported it earlier, that’s why no less than the top DPWH officials from the regional to the national level have inspected some of the projects that have problems and we haven’t hesitated to say, this is what was done wrong, this is why this is happening, this has been going on for a long time,” he said.
