A lawmaker on Tuesday said the Bulacan riverwall project flagged by President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. as a “ghost project” was proposed by the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) itself and included in the National Expenditure Program (NEP), despite claims it underwent vetting and feasibility studies.
In a Facebook post, Bicol Saro Party-list Rep. Terry Ridon said the Reinforced Concrete Riverwall Project in Bulacan, implemented by the DPWH Bulacan First Engineering District and contractor Syms Construction Trading, was part of the 2025 NEP and approved in the 2025 General Appropriations Act (GAA).
“This was proposed by the DPWH, and Secretary [Manuel] Bonoan himself said it was fully vetted with feasibility studies,” Ridon said in a separate interview.
“But upon closer scrutiny, even NEP-originated projects that are supposedly fully vetted are still subject to ghost projects and substandard projects by some contractors,” he added.
The riverwall project, inspected by Mr. Marcos last week and deemed a ghost project, was an NEP-originated initiative, meaning it was proposed by the executive branch to Congress, supposedly backed by feasibility studies and vetting by DPWH.
Despite these safeguards, Ridon said the project demonstrates how even fully vetted proposals can still turn into a ghost project or a substandard project carried out by contractors.
The lawmaker emphasized that the issue goes beyond congressional initiatives, saying both national government-proposed and legislator-initiated projects could be vulnerable to irregularities.
“To be clear, whether it is NEP-originated or a congressional-originated projects, senators and congressmen can be implicated here,” Ridon said.
He added that accountability could extend to DPWH leadership if failures were found in monitoring and validation.
“If [Bonoan] admits there was a failure to check either at the central office or at the level of the regional director, then there is ultimate responsibility on the secretary of DPWH,” Ridon said.
The controversy stems from President Marcos’ surprise inspection in Bulacan last week, where he declared the riverwall project a “ghost project” after finding no visible construction despite its reported completion.
