Western Visayas has no ghost flood control projects, DEPDev-6 says

By Rjay Zuriaga Castor

ILOILO CITY — The Department of Economy, Planning, and Development Region 6 (DEPDev-6) said its field monitoring of flood control projects in Western Visayas found no ghost projects.

The agency added that infrastructure anomalies in the region are less severe than those reported in other parts of the country.

“Not to that level of ghost projects,” DEPDev-6 Director Arecio Casing Jr. said Tuesday, Sept. 1, when asked whether ghost flood control projects had been found in Western Visayas.

Casing spoke at the Kapihan sa PIA Western Visayas forum in Iloilo City.

He said the projects listed in documents submitted by the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) were present based on the agency’s monitoring.

“As to their level of presence in the submitted documents by DPWH, they are there. But if they are not there, that has to be further verified,” he said.

Casing said DEPDev-6 had monitored some anomalies in flood control projects in Western Visayas, but that these did not match the scale documented elsewhere.

“As compared to other regions, we are not that severe compared to other regions. Our reports still have to be substantiated by other government agencies, including the Department of Justice (DOJ), National Bureau of Investigation, and Philippine National Police, which also use our reports as a basis for their assessment,” Casing said.

He said the eventual findings of the investigations, including cases that were or will still be filed by the Office of the Ombudsman, would provide a clearer picture of the extent of the anomalies.

Casing said DEPDev-6, together with the Regional Project Monitoring Council, Department of Budget and Management (DBM), and Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG), was tasked with assessing flood control projects across the country.

“We were tasked together with the Regional Project Monitoring Council to assess all of these projects all over the country. We are not alone. We are together with the DBM, DILG, and [others],” he said.

He said the monitoring agencies had submitted their reports to the Office of the President, which subsequently referred the findings to justice agencies for further investigation.

“The cases being filed, these are offshoots of those [investigations],” he said.

Casing said the assessment follows several parameters, the first being whether a project exists at the reported location.

“If it is there, then at the level of construction, we do not judge if it is substandard or overpriced. That is not to our level. However, those are the parameters we submitted,” he said.

He said determining whether a project is overpriced or substandard falls outside DEPDev-6’s mandate and requires assessment by the appropriate government agencies.

DEPDev-6 is the regional office of the department created under Republic Act No. 12145, the Economy, Planning, and Development Act, which reorganized the National Economic and Development Authority into a full executive department. President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. signed the law on April 10, 2025, and it took effect on July 11 of that year.

The regional assessment forms part of a nationwide review that followed the flood control controversy of 2025. Marcos created the Independent Commission for Infrastructure through Executive Order No. 94 on Sept. 11, 2025, to examine flood control and other infrastructure projects implemented from 2015 onward. The commission ceased operations on March 31, 2026, and turned its findings over to the Office of the Ombudsman and the DOJ.

DPWH-6 records covering fiscal years 2023 to 2025 listed 462 flood control projects in Western Visayas, of which 264 were completed. The Department of Environment and Natural Resources in Region 6 ordered a quality assessment of those completed structures in February, after verification found no ghost projects in the region.

Flood control funding for the region is set to resume. The DPWH has proposed PHP 6.4161 billion for flood control, rehabilitation, and drainage projects in Western Visayas under the 2027 National Expenditure Program, which the DBM submitted to Congress on Aug. 11.