(UPDATE) SEN. Panfilo Lacson said a fresh generation of civil servants is needed to clean up the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH), which has become mired in “boundless greed.”
Lacson said DPWH Secretary Vince Dizon could tap the private sector for civil engineers who will bring with them a culture of accountability.
“Assuming all DPWH officials submitted their courtesy resignations, Sec. Vince may start hiring licensed civil engineers from the private sector, still untainted by corruption and trained by corporate best practices; then create a new generation of professional civil servants,” Lacson posted on X Saturday afternoon.
Dizon has ordered the courtesy resignation of all DPWH officials after he took over the department.
The DPWH is in the center of a major controversy involving substandard and non-existent flood control projects that have persisted through the collusion among lawmakers, department officials and contractors.
The Senate president pro tempore said that over P1.9 trillion had been appropriated to the DPWH for flood mitigation and management since 2011.
In privileged speeches last Aug. 20 and Sept. 9, Lacson detailed the web of corruption spun by DPWH engineers, some of whom gamble away hundreds of millions of pesos of taxpayers’ money in casinos.
Worse, he noted new moneymaking schemes by junior DPWH personnel, including additional requirements priced at thousands of pesos per page — on top of the regular commissions and “obligations” contractors are made to pay.
“Learning fast from their superiors, even official and ‘invented’ documents have become sources of ill-gotten income at the lower echelons of the DPWH’s district engineering offices,” Lacson said.
Security
On Sunday, Interior Secretary Jonvic Remulla announced that the Philippine National Police (PNP) will provide security for DPWH personnel assigned to inspect flood control projects.
“We’re only handling the security side. We don’t have knowledge in forensic infrastructure, but there are many threats to the people, so we’re there to help,” Remulla told reporters.
Dizon confirmed that more than 100 flood control projects have been flagged for possible anomalies. Among the most high-profile cases involved a supposed P96.5-million flood control project in Plaridel, Bulacan, which was listed as completed but found to be nonexistent.
The Commission on Audit (COA) has since launched a special fraud audit of flood control projects in Bulacan, covering those implemented from January 2022 to July 2025. Auditors are using geo-tagged photos and on-site inspections to verify the actual completion of projects, amid growing suspicions of “ghost” infrastructure.
Dizon has acknowledged that the DPWH cannot single-handedly validate the thousands of projects it handles every year, prompting the agency to seek security and logistical support from both the PNP and the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP).
Flood control is a cornerstone of the government’s disaster mitigation efforts, particularly in low-lying and typhoon-prone regions.
