MANILA, Philippines — Senate Minority Leader Alan Peter Cayetano called for a sweeping investigation of questionable infrastructure projects across the country, including those in his home city of Taguig, stressing that no politician or locality should be exempt from scrutiny.
“Investigate us. Don’t exempt any city. Don’t exempt Alan Cayetano, our congressman, my brother who was mayor, [Pasig City Mayor] Vico Sotto, Senator Joel Villanueva, and especially Senator Jinggoy Estrada,” Cayetano said during the Senate plenary session on September 15.
Cayetano revealed that Taguig was among the areas where the Discaya family, one of the top 15 contractors accused of cornering more than P30 billion in flood control projects nationwide in the past three years, had secured projects.
“In Taguig, the Discayas have a project. It went through open bidding. But if I’m not mistaken, in Pasig City they also have a project. This is not an exposé. I’m just stating it as a fact,” he said, noting that city officials have reviewed the projects.
The investigation revealed no evidence of “ghost” projects, he said.
“So far we haven’t seen any ghost projects. So far we’ve seen good quality of work, but we were told they were subcontracted,” the senator said.
He challenged Public Works Secretary Vince Dizon to disclose a full list of projects handled by the top 15 contractors flagged by President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., saying transparency was the only way to verify allegations of irregularities.
“Where is the complete list of projects of the 15 contractors? Let’s just post everything at once,” he said.
