Ejercito seeks travel ban for officials linked to flood control anomalies

Senator JV Ejercito on Wednesday supported a proposal to place officials involved in anomalous flood control projects on the immigration watch list.

Ejercito also backed President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr.’s suggestion to subject these officials to lifestyle checks to verify whether their assets match their declared income.

"Their lavish lifestyle needs to be examined, they are not even ashamed to wear designer and expensive clothes, watches, and shoes," Ejercito said in Filipino.

He recommended prioritizing lifestyle checks on regional directors, district engineers, and assistant district engineers assigned to areas that received large allocations from the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) budget.

MIND Act push

Ejercito stressed that it is no longer acceptable to simply ask Filipinos to remain “resilient” amid recurring floods and disasters, which he attributed to corruption and the lack of a comprehensive infrastructure plan.

He renewed his call for the passage of Senate Bill No. 2, or the Masterplan for Infrastructure and National Development (MIND) Act, which seeks to establish a long-term, strategic blueprint for all government infrastructure projects.

“We will be hitting two birds with one stone with this measure. Since we have a lot of catching up in terms of infrastructure development with our ASEAN neighbors, this measure is aimed at fast-tracking big-ticket infra projects that will transcend different administrations,” Ejercito said.

“With a comprehensive masterplan, we can avoid the occurrence of these insignificant and ghost projects," he added, noting that he will deliver a privilege speech on the MIND Act in the Senate next week.

"I hope we can work together to pass this in the Senate. We will not stop and we will work for a well-functioning, world-class infrastructure that Filipinos deserve," he added.

Questionable practices exposed

During his interpellation on Senator Panfilo Lacson’s privilege speech regarding flood control, Ejercito shared that a tipster revealed two classifications of flood control projects — those intended as “pang-pamilya” (for family) and others labeled as “pang-sports" (for sports).

Ejercito explained that “family” projects are legitimate infrastructure projects that have gone through proper planning and budgeting processes. Meanwhile, “sports” projects, he said, are those manipulated to generate illicit profit.

He also highlighted issues in the implementation of flood control projects, citing reports that some projects inserted into the General Appropriations Act (GAA) are rushed without proper planning.

"There is also information that has reached me that when there are projects included in the GAA that were originally not in the [National Expenditure Program], the district engineer has two weeks to prepare a project plan, detailed matrix, project design, and program of works," Ejercito said.

“This is the modus operandi to start the project and to collect the funds," he added.

Ejercito further noted that some flood control projects remain in shambles because critical details, such as project addresses and coordinates, are often missing from contracts.