State auditors, too

With each passing day, more dismaying details about the flood control scandal are revealed.

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Last Tuesday, sacked assistant district engineer Brice Hernandez told the Senate Blue Ribbon committee that since 2019, all projects carried out by the Department of Public Works and Highways in Bulacan’s first engineering district have been substandard, to accommodate kickbacks of lawmakers and other government officials.

The projects include not only flood control interventions but also roads, classrooms, hospitals, bridges and even street lighting, Hernandez testified.

This was only in one DPWH engineering district. How widespread was this vile practice?

Among the many questions still waiting for an answer is how crooks managed to pass off substandard or nonexistent flood control projects as completed.