Senate Minority Leader Alan Peter Cayetano has pushed back against claims of anomalous infrastructure spending in his home city of Taguig, telling followers in a livestream that his own reviews turned up nothing and that the accusations are too broadly worded to respond to directly.
He argued the charges lack the specifics needed for a proper rebuttal. “So, maaring yung iba sa inyo nagtatanong na, sir, hindi nyo ba sasagutin yung allegations against you? Well, the allegations are general eh. Yung sinasabing may ghost sa Taguig. And we’ve checked. Remember, the national projects are from the national government,” he said.
Cayetano drew a distinction between local officials and works bankrolled by the national government, suggesting a senator or congressman would ordinarily have no hand in them. “Theoretically, dapat walang kinalaman ang senador-congressman diyan. But of course, nakita natin dyan sa Blue Ribbon Committee na may talagang conspiracy o nakikialam… So, I continue to wait kung ano yung specific allegation and haharapin ko ‘yan,” he said.
He described a personal habit of monitoring construction in his area and flagging defects when he finds them, adding that flawed works had already been reported and inspected by senior public works officials. “I do as a habit check as much as I can projects… So, in our preliminary investigations, wala kaming nakitang ghost. ‘Yung mga nakita namin may problema, we reported it earlier, that’s why no less than the top DPWH officials from the regional to the national level have inspected some of the projects na may problema at hindi kami nagkulang na magsabing, eto mali ang pagkagawa, eto bakit ganito, eto ang tagal-tagal na,” he said. He has maintained across earlier livestreams that Taguig has no ghost projects.
The remarks come as Senator Panfilo Lacson widens a separate inquiry into questionable slope protection works in the city, citing newly identified bagmen and additional findings. Lacson has tied his sharpened focus on Taguig to Cayetano directly, saying he redirected staff there after the minority leader challenged his integrity. “I am just prioritizing Taguig, not singling it out. And I am prioritizing it after he attacked my integrity,” Lacson said.
Lacson has placed the combined value of the flagged projects at P3.385 billion, with many contracts worth around P100 million each, and pointed to two entries sharing an identical location and description as a sign of possible duplicate funding. He is weighing whether to send the evidence straight to the Ombudsman rather than route it through the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee.
One flag before publishing: the P3.385 billion figure and Lacson’s account both come solely from his own statements in the source material, so confirm them against the official press release before this runs.
