FROM LEFT: Vince Dizon, Henry Alcantara, and Mark Allan Arevalo —PHOTOS BY NIÑO JESUS ORBETA
MANILA, Philippines — Secretary Vince Dizon on Thursday mentioned he would impose a lifetime ban on two contractors from the federal government’s public works for his or her involvement in alleged ghost initiatives as he dismissed the previous chief of the Bulacan first district engineering workplace, the place the “nonexistent” flood mitigation works had been positioned.
Dizon additionally ordered the authorized division of the Division of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) to suggest plunder fees to the Workplace of the Ombudsman towards former Bulacan first district head Henry Alcantara, his successor, Brice Ericson Hernandez, and Jaypee Mendoza, former chief of the district’s development part.
READ: Who’s Henry Alcantara, the DPWH Bulacan govt below fireplace?
He mentioned that when banned, Wawao Builders and SYMS Development and Buying and selling would not be allowed to take part in any public works mission of the DPWH.
Dizon’s actions got here simply days after he changed Public Works Secretary Manuel Bonoan following an order by President Marcos to analyze corruption-tainted sloppy or ghost flood management initiatives across the nation that price billions of pesos.
“That is clearly prison,” Dizon instructed reporters after inspecting one of many so-called ghost initiatives in Plaridel, Bulacan. “That is plunder, nearly P100 million stolen.”
Below Republic Act No. 7080, or the Anti-Plunder Act, public officers commit plunder by amassing ill-gotten wealth amounting to a minimum of P50 million by means of a mix or a sequence of prison acts. Non-public individuals will also be charged with plunder if that they had conspired with the general public officers. The penalty for the crime is life imprisonment.
Dizon mentioned the lifetime blacklisting of Wawao and SYMS could be utilized to their associates. Wawao and SYMS, each single proprietorships, can even be really useful for prison fees within the Division of Justice, he mentioned.
‘Automated’ ban
These concerned in ghost flood management initiatives must face an “automated perpetual ban” from public works initiatives of the DPWH, he mentioned.
In Plaridel, a sloping river safety wall mission by Wawao that was alleged to be taller than an individual on prime of an embankment was reported to have been 100% accomplished in June 2024.
After they inspected the location in Barangay Sipat, Dizon and different officers and reporters solely noticed a small portion of the supposed 150-meter-long concrete wall, recent excavations and an idle backhoe truck.
Barangay Chair Oscar Gabriel instructed Dizon that the work there started solely three weeks earlier, across the time when the President disclosed that 15 of greater than 2,000 contractors had been awarded 18 p.c, or about P100 billion, of the P545-billion flood management initiatives nationwide from 2022 to 2025.
“I name this an try to resurrect the useless,” Dizon mentioned. “Maybe, three weeks in the past, when this problem turned scorching and the Senate and Congress began their investigations, and the President was angered, they tried to resurrect the useless. This was gone. That is clearly a ghost mission.”
‘Animals’ to be jailed
Based on a “mission briefer” ready by the First District Engineering Workplace of Bulacan, the “discover to proceed” for the P96.5-million mission was given in March 2024 and the “precise accomplishment” was June 11, 2024. Wawao was totally paid a month later.
“Those behind this mission are animals. They aren’t people to do that to our fellow Filipinos,” the DPWH chief mentioned. “And consider me, all of the animals behind this will likely be jailed.”
“The president has repeatedly mentioned—and this was his clear marching orders to me—that we should not permit this to occur anymore, and to carry individuals who have accomplished this to account,” he added.
Wawao proprietor Mark Allan Arevalo was referred to as final Monday to a Senate inquiry on flood management initiatives however the 37-year-old businessman invoked his proper towards self-incrimination when he was requested by Senate Majority Chief Joel Villanueva if he had dealt with ghost initiatives.
SYMS, owned by sole proprietor Sally Santos of Malolos, Bulacan, was the supposed builder of the alleged “ghost” river wall in Barangay Piel, Baliwag Metropolis, which the President inspected on Aug. 20.
The president discovered the development website of the P55.73-million flood mitigation mission deserted, although it was reported to have been accomplished on June 30, 2025.
Based on Dizon, the DPWH can even file prison complaints towards the individuals behind Wawao and SYMS within the DOJ. They are going to embody those that had been “clearly dummies and the actual house owners or the useful house owners,” he mentioned.
Final Bonoan report
Malacañang welcomed Dizon’s pronouncements.
“This motion of the company is in keeping with President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s name for swift motion, the submitting of instances, and holding accountable these behind the anomalous initiatives,” Palace press officer Claire Castro mentioned in a briefing.
When he formally stepped down final Tuesday, Bonoan instructed reporters that the DPWH’s personal investigation had to this point discovered 15 “nonexistent” or “lacking” initiatives from 1,600 that had been regarded into, out of a complete of 9,856 throughout the nation.
Bonoan submitted the paperwork from his investigation to Dizon, saying these had been topic to validation to verify that these had been certainly “ghost” initiatives.
Based on Bonoan, “most” of the 15 had been positioned within the jurisdiction of the Bulacan First District Engineering Workplace, whereas the remaining had been “scattered” in different areas.
Earlier than he left workplace, Bonoan relieved Alcantara, a confessed on line casino aficionado, Brice and different officers of the Bulacan’s first district engineering workplace.
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The Fee on Audit has deployed its personal groups to examine all flood management initiatives in Bulacan as a part of an ongoing fraud audit protecting greater than three years of public works spending within the province. —with a report from Carmela Reyes-Estrope
