MANILA – A widening crackdown on corruption has hit the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH), with three Bulacan district engineers dismissed from service and several contractors blacklisted over ghost flood control projects.
DPWH Secretary Vince Dizon confirmed that former Bulacan First District assistant engineers Brice Hernandez and Jaypee Mendoza were officially removed, along with district engineer Henry Alcantara, who had earlier been ordered dismissed.
“Alcantara, Hernandez, and Mendoza have been dismissed from the DPWH. For the others, the process of their dismissal has already begun,” Dizon told GMA7’s Unang Balita on Friday.
Dizon also revealed that contractors implicated in a graft complaint filed by the DPWH before the Office of the Ombudsman have been barred from taking part in future projects. These include St. Timothy Construction Corporation, SYMS Construction Trading, Wawao Builders, and IM Construction Corporation.
“These contractors have been blacklisted,” he stressed.
The graft cases stemmed from irregularities in flood control projects, some of which turned out to be ghost projects.
President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. on Thursday ordered a sweeping probe, with the Senate, House of Representatives, and other agencies launching parallel investigations.
To institutionalize the effort, the President signed Executive Order No. 94 creating the Independent Commission for Infrastructure (ICI), tasked to investigate anomalies in government infrastructure projects.
The ICI, composed of a chairperson and two members with proven integrity, will be empowered to investigate, gather evidence, and recommend criminal, civil, or administrative charges. Its initial mandate will cover flood control and other public works undertaken in the past decade./PN
