No ghost projects in Taguig, DPWH chief Vince Dizon tells Alan Cayetano

Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) Secretary Vince Dizon said that based on his agency's ongoing investigation, it has yet to find a ghost or non-existent infrastructure project in Taguig City.

During the Senate hearing Friday on the DPWH budget for 2027, Senator Alan Peter Cayetano asked Dizon if the department has identified a ghost project in the former's political bailiwick of Taguig.

"Wala po. Sa aming imbestigasyon, wala po," Dizon replied. (There is none. Based on our investigation, there is none.)

According to DPWH Undersecretary Ricardo Bernabe III, the agency has so far listed 107 projects in Taguig, all of which have accomplishments.

"So I'll stop there. Mayroon na kayong... And everyone's open to look at it. The media, any investigating. Because I myself want to know kung may ghost. Kasi simula nu'ng nangyari itong flood control, tanong kami nang tanong sa sarili naming lugar. Kahit hindi ako taga-DPWH," Cayetano said.

(So I'll stop there. You have… And everyone's open to look at it. The media, any investigating. Because I myself want to know if there is a ghost. Ever since this flood control happened, we keep aksing if there are in our area, even if I am not from the DPWH.)

Cayetano has been embroiled in a verbal feud with Senator Ping Lacson after the two traded corruption allegations since July. Lacson has since then started a probe into Taguig projects.

Lacson said that his probe into Taguig City ghost projects opened a "cauldron of worms" upon meeting with officials from the Philippine Reclamation Authority (PRA).

In a statement on Saturday, Lacson said Dizon contradicted his agency’s own site engineers, adding that the DPWH’s report already flagged several anomalies in Taguig City projects.

"Poor Vince Dizon. The ‘pressure’ of work may have clouded his memory. The DPWH already turned over to my Senate office records of nonexistent but reported as completed slope protection projects in Taguig. Like toothpaste squeezed from the tube, there’s no putting it back in," Lacson said in a social media post. — VDV, GMA News