After flood ‘ghosts’ come DoH’s ‘haunted’ ventures

Nearly P15 billion worth of incomplete and idle health projects remain unaccounted for under the Department of Health (DoH), including hundreds of so-called “haunted” super health centers that were built but never used.

The latest Commission on Audit (CoA) report flagged 123 projects worth P11.54 billion that were still unfinished beyond their contract periods. 

DoH data showed that 319 out of 1,099 super health centers slated for construction from 2021 to 2024 — valued at P3 billion — were either incomplete or non-functional.

Senator Sherwin Gatchalian, during a Senate finance hearing on the 2025 DoH budget, said his team inspected 10 provincial health centers and found many to be structurally complete but non-operational. Some, he said, had been left idle for years.

“One drug treatment facility wasn’t finished, yet the report said it was completed. This indicates possible anomalies or corruption,” Gatchalian said, pointing to projects tied to controversial contractors, including the Discaya couple Sarah and Curlee. 

According to Gatchalian, billions in unfinished DoH projects overlap with questionable transactions in other departments, raising suspicions of cross-agency anomalies. He said contractors appeared to be “seeking opportunities in various departments, wherever there’s money.” 

The senator noted that almost P3 billion had been spent on idle facilities. He also cited the Philippine Children’s Hospital, which had requested P100 million for a building for children with cancer — roughly the cost of a single flood control project.

Critics said the problem lies not only with construction but with coordination. Health centers, in several cases, were turned over without staff, power supply, or budgets to operate them. Local government units claimed they had no funds to hire doctors or cover electricity costs, leaving completed facilities to rot.

Bataan 2nd District Representative Albert Garcia, who sponsored the DoH budget, insisted the structures were not “ghost projects.” 

“The facilities exist, but they are not functioning because there are not enough healthcare professionals to run them. They are there, waiting to be activated,” he said.

Backlog admitted

Earlier, Health Secretary Ted Herbosa admitted that DoH coordination failures with LGUs caused the backlog and said his agency would work with the CoA and Ombudsman to improve transparency.

Justice Secretary Jesus Crispin Remulla confirmed that the Department of Justice has tried to convene a meeting to clarify allegations involving lawmakers and health projects but “there has been no response.”

“There was an attempt to set a meeting, but there has been no response. I’d rather it be done officially for transparency across the board, so there’s no ‘you said, she said,’” Remulla said.

He revealed that about 200 names surfaced in connection with questionable projects dating as far back as 2016, when many of those implicated were still in Congress. 

“At that time, I was in Congress myself. There were rules that said don’t cross your territory. Each had their own area, and there was no treaty among us. We didn’t really talk about it as congressmen, but in reality, that was what was happening — it was probably an illegality,” he said.

Asked about Baguio City Mayor Benjamin Magalong’s claim that Secretary Herbosa was linked to the questionable projects, Remulla clarified that the projects “appeared to have been carried out much earlier, possibly in 2015,” before Herbosa assumed office.

The Justice chief underscored the need for official proceedings to untangle what appears to be a network of unfinished, mismanaged, and possibly anomalous health projects that continue to bleed billions in public funds.