Ping: Pols get lion's share of flood control kickbacks

Budget insertions, unprogrammed funds linked to anomalies

- By MARC JAYSON CAYABYAB

Politicians — including lawmakers — are the ones who have profited most from substandard and non-existent flood control projects, in collusion with private contractors and corrupt public works officials, Sen. Panfilo Lacson said yesterday.

In a privilege speech, Lacson said lawmakers were able to get kickbacks as project proponents through funding insertions and unprogrammed appropriations in the national budget.

He revealed a "nasty" corruption racket among "greedy" members of the House of Representatives, their accomplices from the private sector and Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) district engineers, and even state auditors.

He said the "corruptionary" moneymaking schemes in flood control projects include cost cuts to get kickbacks, substandard construction to scrimp on project funding, repeat funding despite project completion and what he called the worst kind — "ghost" projects.

With such anomalies, he said tax money literally "drifted away and down the drain."

"All this went straight into the pockets of the insatiably greedy — corrupt-to-the-core politicians, DPWH officials and contractors, conniving among themselves, unmindful of the lives lost and the properties destroyed, all for their lust for money," Lacson said.

Lacson identified contractors behind substandard projects as Eddmari Construction in Candating, Arayat, Pampanga; Silverwolves Construction Corp. in Bauang, La Union and in Baco, Oriental Mindoro; Sunwest Inc. also in Oriental Mindoro.

Lacson also flagged several ghost projects in Oriental Mindoro and Bulacan.

In his speech, Lacson said that in every project, lawmakers who also acted as project proponents would get 20 to 25 percent and the rest divided among public works district engineers, state auditors and contractors.