Senate Minority Leader Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano on Tuesday slammed Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) Undersecretary Cathy Cabral for repeatedly saying “hindi ko alam” when asked about ghost projects, geotagging, and overhead expenses.
Cayetano made the remark during September 9’s plenary session after Senator Panfilo Lacson, in a privilege speech, presented a text message showing Cabral giving detailed instructions on how DPWH budget “insertions” could be made in the National Expenditure Program (NEP).
Cayetano said this directly contradicted Cabral’s earlier answers to him in the Blue Ribbon hearing on August 27.
He said in the text message, Cabral appeared “napaka-organized” when discussing DPWH insertions, far from the clueless stance she showed during Senate hearings.
“Sa text, napaka-organized. Titingnan pa kung may redundancy, ibig sabihin kung y’ung project na pinasok mo, pinasok na ng iba,” the senator noted. “Ang layo sa sagot niyang, ‘Sir, hindi ko departamento ‘yan, hindi ko alam.'”
Cayetano added it was clear that insertions occur not only during legislators’ bicameral meetings but even while the DPWH itself is still drafting its proposed budget.
“Dito sa text message niya, malinaw na malinaw na y’ung insertion, sa pagpapagawa pa lang ng NEP, ‘pag malakas ka sa departamento, pwede mong ipasok except that mas may guidelines sa umpisa,” he said.
Cayetano also reiterated his criticism of the agency’s ballooning Engineering and Administrative Overhead (EAO), which has risen from 0.5 percent to 3.5 percent of every project over the last three years.
EAO is the portion automatically deducted from the cost of any DPWH project worth over P1 million. The amount goes to the DPWH central office, regional directors, and district engineers to cover overhead expenses such as quality control and testing.
But Cayetano said despite these supposed purposes, the fund has failed to guarantee the integrity of projects and has even been linked to so-called “ghost projects.”
“In three years, umabot sa halos P100 billion ang napupunta sa DPWH,” he said.
Lacson echoed Cayetano’s sentiment, saying these funds could have been used for other legitimate government expenses.
“Isa ito sa pwedeng tanungin sa budget deliberation natin. Bakit tumaas na, naging 3.5 na? Napakalaking bawas ‘yan sa dapat gastusin sa proyekto,” Lacson said.
