The decade-long professional ties between Secretary Vince Dizon of the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) and Senator Alan Peter Cayetano are now under fresh scrutiny after Dizon told the Senate there were no ghost projects in Taguig, only for Sen. Panfilo “Ping” Lacson to say the statement contradicted DPWH’s own inspection reports.

Dizon’s closeness with Cayetano dates back to 2013, when he became a consultant to the then-Senate majority leader. After leaving Cayetano’s office in 2016, following the senator’s failed vice presidential bid, Dizon became Bases Conversion and Development Authority (BCDA) president and CEO.

Dizon’s government work also brought him into repeated contact with other members of the Cayetano political clan in Taguig.

In 2017, Dizon appeared with Alan Cayetano, then Foreign Affairs secretary; Taguig Mayor Lani Cayetano; and then-Taguig representative Pia Cayetano at the opening of an extension of the Laguna Lake Highway.

Dizon’s and Alan Peter’s professional paths crossed again during preparations for the 2019 Southeast Asian (SEA) Games, with Cayetano chairing the Philippine Southeast Asian Games Organizing Committee (Phisgoc) and Dizon heading BCDA, which oversaw the development of New Clark City’s sports facilities.

Clark served as the main hub of the Games, with New Clark City hosting major competitions and the closing ceremony at its newly built Athletics Stadium, which features the controversial “kaldero” or cauldron whose reported P50-million-plus cost drew criticism in 2019.

The cauldron is now among the projects being examined by the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI), under director Melvin Matibag, in its probe into alleged anomalies surrounding the 2019 SEA Games.

The NBI has said it received new information and documents concerning Phisgoc, which Cayetano chaired, and is investigating alleged irregularities in the procurement and funding of SEA Games projects.

Backdrop

Dizon himself was previously implicated in an investigation involving the New Clark City sports facilities. The Office of the Ombudsman dismissed the charges against him in 2021 for insufficiency of evidence.

Likewise, Dizon also worked with Lino Cayetano during the Covid-19 response, including at Taguig’s Lakeshore quarantine facility in 2020 and during the city’s vaccination rollout in 2021. He also inspected a Taguig vaccination hub with Pia Cayetano.

On 28 April this year, Dizon inspected Taguig’s Hall of Justice with Alan Peter and Mayor Lani Cayetano.

It was against this backdrop that Lacson, engaged in a bitter word war with Alan Peter, has pressed his allegations involving Taguig infrastructure projects.

When the allegations about ghost projects surfaced in July, Dizon said the DPWH would verify them. Cayetano later said Dizon had told him three times that Taguig projects had been checked and no ghost projects were found.

“I hope he will not allow himself to be pressured and I hope he tells the truth because he had told me three times already that they verified, and determined there are no ghost projects in Taguig,” Cayetano said in July.

But Lacson said Dizon has assured him that the DPWH would halt reclamation-related projects once the Philippine Reclamation Authority made a formal request.

Bitter feud

Lacson’s investigation has focused on alleged ghost projects, double appropriations, recycled billing photographs and other possible anomalies in Taguig infrastructure.

He has also alleged that Cayetano exercises extensive influence over DPWH operations in the city. The allegations have ratcheted up the bitter exchange between the two senators.

Cayetano has accused Lacson of conducting a “demolition job,” “trial by publicity” and “witch hunt” over the Taguig projects.

“Yes, I am categorically stating that Senator Panfilo Lacson is carrying out a demolition job, a trial by publicity and a witch hunt against the city of Taguig,” Cayetano said in a Facebook livestream.

Lacson has rejected the accusation and continued to release documents concerning the projects.

On 5 September, after Cayetano described the investigation as a search for ghosts, Lacson said: “True. There are many ghosts in slope protection and flood mitigation projects along Taguig River. The Ombudsman is now investigating.”

Lacson’s camp said it submitted 45 case studies backed by official documents to the Office of the Ombudsman, which has begun fact-finding on the allegations.

The dispute has also extended to reclamation projects in Taguig.

On 22 September, Cayetano confronted Philippine Reclamation Authority (PRA) officials over cease-and-desist orders issued against several Taguig projects, accusing the agency of “selective justice.”

The orders were issued by DPWH following a directive from the Office of the President through the PRA. The projects had been linked by Lacson’s office to alleged illegal reclamation works, which Cayetano has denied.

The exchange between Lacson and Cayetano then moved directly into the Senate hearing on the DPWH budget.

During the 25 September Senate hearing on the proposed 2027 DPWH budget, Cayetano asked Dizon whether Taguig had ghost projects.

“None. Based on our investigation, there are none,” Dizon said. The original Filipino, as reported by DAILY TRIBUNE, was: “Wala po. Sa aming imbestigasyon, wala.”

Dizon added the investigation was still ongoing. Echoing his boss, DPWH Undersecretary Ricardo Bernabe III said the agency had listed 107 projects in Taguig, all of which had accomplishments.

But Lacson said Dizon’s answer conflicted with inspection reports prepared by DPWH personnel from its Bureaus of Quality and Safety, Maintenance, Construction and Research and Standards.

‘Poor memory’

“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.

Lacson said the reports covered Taguig flood-control projects declared completed even though inspection teams were unable to validate their physical presence on site.

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

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

According to figures he released, 15,523 images were processed, with 1,079 image pairs flagged for high visual similarity involving 180 unique contracts.

‘Like toothpaste’

In response, Lacson noted that the DPWH had provided his Senate office with records of slope-protection projects that he said did not exist but were reported as completed.

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

“Like toothpaste squeezed from the tube, there’s no putting it back in,” said Lacson, who submitted his findings to the Office of the Ombudsman.

The DPWH’s 107-project list, the inspection reports cited by Lacson, the image-analysis records and the 45 case studies submitted to the Ombudsman are among the documents involved in the continuing investigation.