Belmonte: Additional P17B in DPWH flood projects wasted in QC

Quezon City Mayor Joy Belmonte on Monday revealed that the 254 flood control projects of the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) they had previously counted are actually 331 when inspected, amounting to over P17 billion of taxpayers' money wasted. In a press conference, Belmonte said she is "outraged how this people squandered this money."

"This (money) can change lives. Napakarami na sanang magagawa ang halagang ito, sa pagtupad ko ng aking tungkulin," she said, referring to the funds that should have been spent on health and education programs of the city.

The DPWH flood control projects in Quezon City, according to Belmonte, are a total loss of taxpayers' money as most of them are hard to verify and, worst, totally block the floodwaters. She disclosed that after their inspections and validations, there are flood control projects that even have many phases and no clear delineation, which is supposedly indicated in the project title.

"The San Juan River rehabilitation or flood mitigation (for example) has 92 phases. Some of this projects have the same coordinates for its different phases," Belmonte disclosed, expressing her disgust over the matter. "Based on one of our observation, the 92nd phase is recorded in 2024, pero yun phase 66 ay 2025. That's quite suspicious," Belmonte said.

She added that she is glad that President Marcos has already ordered the return of a policy that the local government should be the one who would attest if a project is already completed and done properly.

Atty. Dale Perral, her City Engineer, while presenting their findings and results of inspections to the said projects, noted that there are also 66 projects with location errors; 35 of them have no coordinates and could not be found.

"That is based on DPWH's own Project and Contract Management Application Web (PCMA-Web)," Perral said, adding that 31 of the projects have incorrect coordinates when they checked. Perral also revealed that there are projects declared completed, but upon their inspection, there is still ongoing construction.

He added that of the top 15 contractors mentioned in the anomalous flood control projects, seven of them have cornered a number of them.

Belmonte, meanwhile, said the report and their findings will be forwarded to the newly formed Independent Commission on Infrastructure that could help the panel with their investigation.