Public Works Secretary Vince Dizon has confirmed that many flood control project coordinates listed on the “Sumbong sa Pangulo” website are inaccurate, citing errors in data submitted by the agency’s previous leadership under Manuel Bonoan.
Dizon is the second government official to confirm the erroneous data after Ombudsman Crispin Remulla.
“Totoo na merong mga maling coordinates at yun ay nanggaling sa DPWH noong Agosto… Pagpunta mo doon sa coordinates na yun, wala kang makikitang proyekto. Na-experience ko mismo yan personally sa Oriental Mindoro at maraming mga ganyan,” said Dizon in an ABS-CBN report.
(It is true that there were incorrect coordinates, and those came from the DPWH last August. When you go to those coordinates, you will not find any project there. I personally experienced this in Oriental Mindoro, and there are many cases like that.)
But whether or not Bonoan — who returned to the country on Sunday after leaving for the United States last November to accompany his wife for a medical procedure — did this intentionally, Dizon said he could not say for sure. (See related story on Bonoan’s arrival – Editors)
“Ayoko munang magsalita tungkol sa motibo, whether sinadya ba yan or nagkamali lang or may nagbigay kay Sec. Manny (Bonoan) ng mga datos tapos sinubmit na niya,” he added.
(I do not want to speak yet about the motive—whether it was intentional, just a mistake, or whether someone provided Sec. Manny Bonoan with the data and he simply submitted it.)
Dizon’s statement comes days after Lacson, as Senate Blue Ribbon Committee chair, subpoenaed Bonoan and 11 others to the panel’s hearing scheduled today.
This followed Senator Panfilo Lacson’s statement last week that he received reliable information that Bonoan deliberately misled President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. with the data he submitted to Malacañang as part of a cover-up for the multibillion-peso scandal.
“Niloko niya si Pangulo,” Lacson said of Bonoan. “Sa cover up palang kitang-kitang mo yung kanyang complicity.”
(He deceived the President. From the cover-up alone, you can clearly see his complicity.)
Meanwhile, Dizon said the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) continues to revalidate the data they have on thousands of flood control and other infrastructure projects.
He admitted the department also inadvertently used the same inaccurate database to put up the DPWH Transparency Portal initiative, which led to their ongoing validation of all flood control projects.
Rodolfo Azurin, Independent Commission for Infrastructure Special Adviser, and DPWH Undersecretary Arthur Bisnar are leading the effort, Dizon said.
Last week, Remulla said the Office of the Ombudsman had information that some suspects deliberately made the wrong coordinates.
“Iyong 421 ghost projects is much less, hindi siya 421… Noong tinitingnan namin iyong 421 ghost [projects], marami talagang improbable kaya alam namin nanggaling din sa first district [of] Bulacan iyong binago para iyan ang mangyari,” he said.
(The 421 ghost projects are much fewer—it is not 421. When we were reviewing them, many were clearly improbable, so we knew that the changes came from [DPWH] Bulacan’s first district for that to happen.).
Remulla added that it was done by Bonoan or any of the officials from the said Bulacan district.
“May nagmali talaga ng grid coordinates para hindi siya ma-geotag ng tama,” said Remulla.
(Someone really made an error in the grid coordinates so that it would not be properly geotagged.)
Sumbongsapangulo.ph is the official website for the government’s “Sumbong sa Pangulo” (Report to the President) initiative.
The former public works chief had sought to extend his stay in the US up to February 15 to continue taking care of his wife Yolanda, Philippine Ambassador to the US Jose Manuel Romualdez said last week.
“Hopefully with our interventions like satellite images, we will know for sure, since the image will not lie, right? If the coordinates are wrong, the satellite will take the wrong pictures. If correct, it will be right,” Dizon said.
This is also why the DPWH is partnering with civil society organizations — to gain extra eyes and ears on the ground, he added.
“That’s where they will help us. Then hopefully we can validate the coordinates with correct locations then we can monitor properly,” he said.
Last week Lacson said information reaching his office showed that incorrect grid coordinates were provided for thousands of flood control projects nationwide.
“This resulted in grossly inaccurate data involving some 421 ghost projects on previously inspected flood control projects earlier reported to the public by the said department and which they are now trying to rectify by comparing the records in their multi-year planning and scheduling or MYPS, Project and Contract Management Application or PCMA,” the lawmaker explained.
The inaccurate coordinates were included in submissions linked to the Sumbong sa Pangulo platform and allegedly affected the validation of hundreds of flood control projects that had earlier been publicly flagged as questionable.
According to Lacson, the submission of flawed data indicated complicity in concealing wrongdoing, regardless of assertions that Bonoan was not a central figure in the alleged corruption.
“He misled it to weaken or destroy the credibility of the claim that there are ghost flood control projects. If it fails, people will think the Sumbong sa Pangulo website is unreliable,” he said.
The senator warned that if the data on the presidential complaints platform were shown to be unreliable, public confidence in the entire investigation into anomalous flood control projects could be undermined.
The issue, he said, may also explain why Bonoan previously challenged the accuracy of data on a flood control project in Mindoro during earlier Senate proceedings.
“That is why he kept saying the grid coordinates were wrong, because in his mind he knew he had falsified them,” Lacson said.
Editor’s Note: This is an updated article. Originally posted with the headline: “Dizon also confirms Bonoan flood control coordinate list inaccurate”
