March has arrived with its characteristic swelter, signaling the start of “Fire Prevention Month.” In the Philippines, this is the season of red trucks, sirens and “Berong Bombero” school visits.

But as the Bureau of Fire Protection goes on red alert, a different kind of heat is rising in the halls of the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH). While we are told to check our electrical sockets for “sparks,” we ought to be checking our national budget for “ghosts.”

This brings us to the first dispatch of our “Summer of Scrutiny” — The Ghost of Infrastructure.

Recent findings by the Independent Commission for Infrastructure have unearthed a chilling reality: out of thousands of inspected projects, hundreds have been classified as “ghost projects” — infrastructure that exist vividly on paper and in disbursement records but are nowhere to be found on actual Philippine soil. As we commemorate the start of the dry season, we must realize that these non-existent dikes and “completed” fire stations are more than just a fiscal anomaly — they are a death trap.

In our 2026 theme, The Conscience of the Code, we demand that “digital transformation” be used for transparency, not for obfuscation. It is a grim irony that in an age where the Philippine Space Agency can track a literal pebble in orbit, our government still struggles to find a multimillion-peso bridge. This month, Radical Accountability means moving beyond the “paper tiger” of internal audits. If the project isn’t on the ground, the officials who signed off on it should be in the hot seat.

We cannot ignore the “Unbreakable Thread” that connects the fire in a crowded Tondo settlement to the “allocables” in a regional DPWH office. When funds intended for urban firewall reinforcements or water retention basins are siphoned off to the “pork giniling” of patronage politics, the cost is measured in human lives. The “Modern Rogue” who pockets the budget for a fire hydrant is just as responsible for the blaze as the faulty wire that started it.

This March, as you practice your “Stop, Drop and Roll” drills, I invite you to practice a new kind of vigilance. Use your phones not just to record the fire, but to track the funds. The 2026 General Appropriations Act now includes provisions for aerial satellite verification. We must hold the government to this. We must demand that the “Code” used by the DPWH is open for public scrutiny, ensuring that the “Summer of Scrutiny” burns away the shadows where these ghost projects hide.

The gavel strikes today for the families living in substandard housing, waiting for infrastructure that was paid for years ago. We don’t just need fire extinguishers; we need an incinerator for corruption.