Photographs submitted to justify payments for a slope protection project along the Taguig River carried location data pointing to Tacloban City, Leyte, about 600 kilometers from where the work was supposed to be done, according to a Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) inspection report made public by Sen. Panfilo “Ping” Lacson.
The DPWH’s own inspectors found that the coordinates embedded in the attached images “do not correspond with the actual project site verified during the inspection,” based on the findings Lacson released on September 27, 2026. The project falls under Contract ID 220B0106.
Records cited by Lacson show the contractor collected a 15 percent advance payment of about P13.74 million on June 23, 2022. A first partial billing of P37.16 million followed in July of that year with no images attached. Two more billings in September 2022, which together exceeded P40 million, were supported by the photos in question, while a final billing of P18.96 million was processed on February 22, 2023. Philstar reported that the September images had their coordinates stripped and that the final billing carried no verifiable location data.
The senator turned the findings into a direct challenge to Public Works Secretary Vince Dizon, who had told senators during hearings on the DPWH budget that the department had found no ghost projects in Taguig.
“In our investigation, none,” Dizon said when asked about the matter. Philstar reported that the assurance was given to Sen. Cayetano last Friday.
“Sec. Vince Dizon, please explain how this finding of your own team should not be flagged as a ghost project in Taguig,” Lacson said.
“Since when has Taguig been located in Leyte?” he added.
Lacson argued that the secretary’s remarks ran counter to site inspection reports from the DPWH’s Bureau of Quality and Safety and Bureau of Maintenance. “The pressure of his work as DPWH chief may have clouded his memory,” he said.
The contract went to St. Timothy Construction Corp., a firm owned by Curlee and Sarah Discaya, who are facing charges linked to alleged irregularities in flood control projects in Bulacan and Davao Occidental. “Discaya’s St Timothy ang contractor. What do you say about this, Sec?” Lacson said.
It is not the first time Lacson has raised questions about public works in the city. He earlier released records of supposed ghost projects in Taguig’s reclamation areas. The latest material also includes an AI-assisted review of 15,523 images from Taguig projects covering 2017 to 2025, which flagged 1,079 image pairs as highly similar.
Dizon had not responded to Lacson’s challenge as of posting time.
DPWH Undersecretary Ricardo Bernabe III earlier said the agency had listed 107 projects in Taguig, all of which showed accomplishments.
