The Ombudsman has placed sixteen Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) personnel under preventive suspension amid their alleged role in Bulacan's P389.6 million in “ghost” flood control projects. 

Acting Ombudsman Dante Vargas issued the six-month suspension order, effective immediately. The move aims to prevent the interference from the officials in question, allowing the ongoing investigation to proceed free from obstruction.

The suspended personnel are DPWH Bulacan 1st District Engineering Office, Procurement Unit Head, Benedict Matawaran; Project Engineers Paul Jayson Duya, Merg Jaron Laus, Lemuel Ephraim Roque, Arjay Domasig, John Carlo Rivera, John Benex Francisco; Engineer II FlorJolo Mari Tayao; Budget Unit Head Roberto Roque; Construction Chief John Michael Ramos; Planning and Design Chief Ernesto Galang; Maintenance OIC-Chief Lorenzo Pagtalunan; Quality Assurance Chiefs Norberto Santos and Jaimer Hernandez; Administrative Chief Floralyn Simbulan; and Cashier II Christina Mae Pineda.

The suspensions follow DPWH Secretary Vince Dizon’s filing of the first-ever criminal and administrative complaint against the agency’s erring officials at the Ombudsman last week.

It was further triggered by additional fraud audit reports covering  Plaridel, Pandi, and Bocaue, Bulacan, submitted by Commission on Audit (COA) Chairperson Gamaliel Cordoba to the Ombudsman on Thursday.

District engineer Henry Alcantara, assistant district engineer Brice Ericson Hernandez, construction division chief Jaypee Mendoza, and chief accountant Juanito Mendoza are also respondents to the case. However, since the DPWH had already dismissed them from service, the imposition of suspension is deemed moot. 

The latest case filed by Dizon and Cordoba on Thursday pertains to the flood control projects in the three municipalities in Bulacan. These projects are suspected of being ghost or non-existent due to a lack of necessary supporting documents, the non-existence of any civil works, discrepancies in the pinpointed location, and even flawed approved bid plans.

The alleged fraudulent projects had a total allocation of P389.6 million and were awarded to contractors, Wawao Builders and TopNotch Catalyst Builders Inc., which the COA had already flagged in previous audits.

Bulacan, which is being tagged as the “most notorious” in the alleged corruption scheme in flood control, had the largest number of flood control projects, 668, from July 2022 to May this year.

The province received the lion’s share of P98 billion in flood control funds allocated for Central Luzon, with a whopping P44 billion.

The COA launched a fraud audit in August following a series of inspections by President Marcos Jr., during which he discovered botched flood control projects, such as the P96.4-million flood control project in Calumpit and the P55-million reinforced concrete wall project in Baliuag, which were found to be ghost projects. 

The fraud audit further exposed three more alleged ghost projects in Plaridel, Pandi, and Bocaue. The COA said the officials involved may face graft, malversation, and falsification, among others.