Quezon City Mayor Joy Belmonte could no longer contain her anger and disappointment after uncovering more anomalous flood control projects in her city—funded with billions of pesos from the national budget, which she said “could have helped far more people.”
In an investigation conducted by the Quezon City LGU into Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) flood control projects from 2022 to the present, 66 projects were found to have location errors, 33 had no project coordinates and could not be traced—including some in Barangay Pasong Tamo and New Era—while 31 were listed with wrong coordinates.
“Malayo na sana ang inabot ng halagang yan. Nalutas na sana natin ang classroom shortage sa lungsod na 5,300 at magkakasurplus pa… aabot na sana sa 350 PhilHealth accredited centers ang naitayo kung ito ay nagamit para diyan. Kung naging pabahay naman ito, katumbas na sana ito ng 14,167 housing units para sa aming informal sector families,” Belmonte said.
The mayor suspects the questionable projects may in fact be non-existent.
“Bilang pangkaraniwang mamamayan, batay doon sa nakita namin, para sa akin ang conclusion ko, ghost project siya. Pero siguro ang engineering sector, eh may ibang mga technical terms na gustong gamitin,” she remarked.
Belmonte stressed that the Quezon City government is prepared to cooperate with any independent or national probe. She said their findings will be submitted to the Independent Commission for Infrastructure (ICI) created by President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. to investigate anomalous flood-control projects, as well as to DPWH Secretary Vince Dizon and the Senate to aid in their inquiries.