National Irrigation Administration (NIA) Administrator Engr. Eduardo “Eddie” Guillen has denied wrongdoing in connection with alleged “ghost” flood control and bridge projects in Piddig, Ilocos Norte, insisting there are no cases or investigations against him even as he continues to publicly defend his alliance with President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr.

In an exclusive interview with the Daily Tribune, Guillen said accusations linking him and his former construction firm to irregular flood control projects are baseless, stressing that “there’s no investigation or case filed” against them and that he had already divested from the company before his appointment as NIA chief in 2023. He noted that the projects now being raised date back to around 2016, several years before Marcos was elected president in 2022, questioning how he could have anticipated those political circumstances at the time. Guillen framed his business background as legitimate work to support his family but stopped short of addressing in detail who benefited from the contracts or how oversight was exercised, arguing instead that in the absence of formal complaints, branding the projects “ghosts” is unfair.

Facing criticism over unfinished bridge works in Piddig, Guillen leaned on a recent inspection by Public Works Secretary Vince Dizon, saying Dizon validated that the structures cannot be considered ghost projects. He explained that the projects were funded and implemented in phases depending on available budget, which naturally results in incomplete-looking structures at certain points in time. “The funding was released phase by phase, so it’s natural that the whole project wouldn’t be completed all at once,” Guillen said, adding that each funded phase was “properly funded and finished,” and therefore should not be tagged as fictitious. He conceded that purely phased implementation is problematic but blamed the budgeting system rather than contractors or project design, saying multi-year contracting would be more transparent and cost-effective because it allows continuous work and avoids cost escalations from idle materials and deteriorating formworks.

In a separate radio interview, Guillen cast the controversy as a product of the “politics of perception,” where, he said, those “magaling manira” tend to dominate over those focusing on program implementation. He said he feels sorry for Marcos, whom he described as gentle, kind, and genuinely concerned for farmers, but also as someone whose temperament makes him an easy political target. Guillen argued that in the current climate, truth has become secondary to narrative, and that critics can gain ground even without showing what they have done in return.

Guillen repeatedly cited his record as mayor of Piddig to answer his critics, pointing to a development approach he describes as “triple bottom line”—social, environmental, and economic. He said flood control projects there were designed with irrigation components to mitigate disasters and increase farm production and incomes. He highlighted his flagship initiative “Basta Piddigueño, AgriHenyo,” which consolidated small farmers into organized production systems and focused on wealth creation in agriculture rather than traditional poverty-alleviation framing. Under this approach, farmers were grouped into associations and cooperatives, partnered with the local government, and given access to facilities such as rice processing systems to capture more value from their produce. Guillen claimed that when he entered office, Piddig’s poverty incidence was in the mid-20 percent range and that it had dropped to low single digits by the end of his term.

Guillen said he welcomes criticism, calling it a reminder to “keep our feet on the ground” and a signal that people are watching. At the same time, he frames much of the backlash as partisan and perception-driven, leaning on his achievements in Piddig and his portrayal of Marcos as a sincere leader to counter accusations. For now, there are no publicly reported cases naming Guillen in relation to ghost projects in Piddig, but the broader national push to audit flood control and bridge works—combined with highly visible unfinished structures—means questions are unlikely to go away soon. How his explanations on phasing, budgeting, and past business ties hold up under formal validation may determine whether his narrative of being a victim of politics, rather than a beneficiary of a flawed system, gains traction beyond his own interviews.