Mark Villar raises concern over 'fake' geotagging photos of gov't projects

Senator Mark Villar has called on relevant agencies to hold accountable contractors who allegedly submitted fake geotagging photographs of government projects as part of their documentation. 

Villar, chairman of the Senate committee on public works and former secretary of the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH), stressed that no contractor should be able to collect funds from the government “on the basis of deception.”

“Did these faulty contractors submit faked geotagged photos? If so, that is outright fraud,” he said in a statement.

“The whole purpose of mandatory geotagging was to make sure the government and the public could verify that work was actually being done where and when it was supposed to be. If contractors have found ways to cheat the system, that is an abuse of public trust and it must be investigated thoroughly,” he added. 

The senator pointed out that submitting fake project documentation, including manipulated or fabricated geotagged photos, “constitutes clear fraud and should carry heavy legal consequences.”

In 2016, the DPWH implemented a new monitoring system which included built-in geo-tagging for government projects, a move that is supposed to weed out ghost projects.

Villar, as DPWH chief back then, said that the monitoring system would enable the adding of geographic identification data to photos, videos, and other posts which would allow other content from the same geographic location to be found. — Giselle Ombay/RSJ, GMA Integrated News