By Tracy Cabrera
Sen. Panfilo ‘Ping’ Lacson has laid the gauntlet, challenging Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) secretary Vivencio ‘Vince’ Dizon to explain inspection findings involving a Taguig infrastructure project whose geotagged photos reportedly placed the project site about 600 kilometers away in Leyte province.
Lacson raised the issue despite Dizon’s earlier assurance to Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano during a budget hearing that there were no ‘ghost projects’ in Taguig.
In a social media post, Lacson, a former Philippine National Police chief, presented what he identified as a DPWH site inspection report for Contract ID 220B0106 and asked Dizon to clarify the apparent discrepancy.
“Sec. Vince Dizon, please explain how this finding of your own team should not be flagged as a ghost project in Taguig. (Since when has Taguig been located in Leyte?)” Lacson spelled out.
The senator specifically cited geotagged photographs attached to the project’s billing documents. According to the inspection findings he presented, the coordinates embedded in some of the images did not correspond to the verified boundaries of the project site and instead pointed to an area in Tacloban City, Leyte.
Lacson also identified the project’s contractor as Saint Timothy Construction, owned by the controversial Discaya family, which has been linked to congressional and government inquiries into alleged irregularities involving DPWH flood-control projects.
Financial records cited by Lacson showed that the alleged geographic discrepancy surfaced as early as the release of a 15-percent advance payment worth ₱13.73 million on June 23, 2022. The payment was reportedly supported by geotagged photographs indicating a location in Tacloban City, Leyte.
Subsequent progress billings amounting to millions of pesos either lacked photographs or contained images without geographical metadata.
A partial billing worth ₱37.16 million in July 2022 reportedly had no accompanying images, while two separate billings in September 2022 totaling more than ₱40 million contained photographs from which the coordinates had been removed.
The final billing of ₱18.96 million, processed in February 2023, likewise reportedly lacked verifiable location data.
Lacson said a later internal DPWH inspection confirmed that the coordinates in photographs attached to the project’s progress and final billings did not correspond to the actual project site.
