Sen. Ping Lacson on Friday evening challenged Public Works Secretary Vince Dizon’s assertion that there were no ghost projects in Taguig City, saying the statement contradicted inspection reports prepared by the department itself.

Lacson said the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) site inspection engineers had documented several Taguig flood-control projects that were reported as completed but whose physical presence could not be verified during inspections.

“Poor DPWH Site Inspection Engineers. Their boss, Sec Vince Dizon directly contradicted their own site inspection reports in Taguig, specifically submitted by personnel from the department’s Bureau of Quality and Safety and Bureau of Maintenance,” Lacson said in a post on X.

Dizon told a Senate finance subcommittee hearing on Friday that the DPWH had found no ghost projects in Taguig, even as its investigation of flood-control projects nationwide continued.

Asked by Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano whether there were ghost projects in Taguig, Dizon replied: “Wala po. Sa aming imbestigasyon, wala.”

But the inspections, according to Lacson, inspection teams examined several Taguig flood-control projects that had been declared completed but were unable to establish their physical presence on site for various reasons.

The reports therefore did not make a conclusive determination that the projects were physically nonexistent, but raised questions that Lacson said were at odds with Dizon’s statement that there were no ghost projects.

Lacson also cited a DPWH analysis of potentially similar billing photographs from Taguig projects between 2017 and 2025.

The agency processed 15,523 images using an AI-based image-similarity detection system and flagged 1,079 pairs for high visual similarity, according to the data cited by Lacson. The analysis covered 180 unique contracts.

Among the contractors with the highest number of projects involving similar billing photographs were Dahl Construction Corp. with 16 projects, L.R. Tiqui Builders Inc. with 12, 729 Construction Inc. with 10, RVR3 Construction Supply and Services with 10, and Toughbuilt Construction & Trading Inc. with nine.

Other contractors listed in the analysis were J. Simeon Construction with eight projects, Tuchar Construction Corp. with seven, Bell Construction with six, and M3 Konstract Corp. and Zyre Trading and Construction with five each.

The presence of visually similar billing photographs, however, does not by itself establish that a project was ghost or that a contractor committed fraud. It is among the records being cited for further scrutiny of the projects.

Lacson separately said early Saturday that DPWH had already provided his Senate office with records of slope-protection projects in Taguig that were “nonexistent but reported as completed.”

“Poor Vince Dizon. The ‘pressure’ of work may have clouded his memory. The DPWH already turned over to my Senate office records of nonexistent but reported as completed slope protection projects in Taguig,” Lacson said. 

The senator added: “Like toothpaste squeezed from the tube, there’s no putting it back in.”

Lacson’s office has previously submitted at least 45 case studies and supporting government documents to the Ombudsman concerning alleged anomalies in Taguig flood-control projects. The Ombudsman has confirmed that it is studying the allegations and has launched a fact-finding inquiry. 

Lacson has also submitted evidence concerning alleged illegal reclamation and infrastructure projects on the Taguig side of Laguna Lake.