Senate President Pro Tempore Panfilo Lacson on Wednesday said more than P180 billion in public funds may have been wasted on flood control projects that never existed since 2016.
Lacson and Senate finance committee chair Sherwin Gatchalian reviewed roughly 10,000 projects and found more than 600 to be ghost or nonexistent.
Extrapolating that rate to about 30,000 flood control projects implemented over the past nine years, the senators estimate losses could reach P180 billion or higher.
‘‘Imagine, we likely lost P180 billion to ghost projects, and we have not yet started counting our losses to substandard projects,’’ the veteran lawmaker lamented.
He noted that these discoveries overshadow the smaller number of anomalies initially probed by the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee.
Investigators uncovered patterns of manipulated procurement, falsified inspections, and coordinated schemes enabling contractors and officials to profit from ghost and substandard projects.
Lacson nevertheless assured that the committee remains ready to support the Department of Justice, the Office of the Ombudsman, and the Independent Commission for Infrastructure should new evidence surface.
The senator said the Senate has also begun addressing the root causes of irregularities by pushing for greater transparency in deliberations on the 2026 budget.
Among the initiatives are livestreaming the amendment period and publicly posting all senators proposed changes to prevent hidden allocations or pork barrel insertions.
In recent sessions, Gatchalian read each amendment aloud on the floor to ensure clarity and eliminate opportunities for secret modifications.
He will decide which amendments to approve or reject in consultation with the Senate Legislative Budget Research and Monitoring Office, which will thoroughly evaluate each proposal.
‘‘We entrust Gatchalian to decide which amendments to accept or reject. We will support him should the matter come to a vote on the floor,’’ said Lacson.
Senate and House leaders also agreed to streamline bicameral conference committee discussions, limiting the focus to provisions that differ between the two chambers’ budget versions.
