Again to zero? Defective flood management coordinates mislead investigators

Authorities investigators have to revisit 1000’s of flood management tasks throughout the nation due to incorrect knowledge

MANILA, Philippines – A whole lot of presidency area investigators have wasted their efforts after being despatched to incorrect places of flood management tasks throughout the nation as a consequence of defective knowledge from the Division of Public Works and Highways (DPWH). 

Because of this, they now face the daunting process of revisiting round 10,000 tasks they’d already inspected. That is on high of 1000’s extra which have but to be inspected.

“As a result of the situation coordinates supplied and utilized by the validators had been incorrect, after all, the impact was that they had been misled into the incorrect places,” DPWH Undersecretary Arthur Bisnar mentioned in a Senate blue ribbon committee listening to on Monday, January 19. 

“Even the report they submitted is principally incorrect, for the reason that location coordinates they primarily based their inspection on had been already incorrect,” Bisnar mentioned. “Mainly, we’ll restart throughout.”

The validation effort, led by the Impartial Fee for Infrastructure (ICI) and involving the DPWH, Division of Nationwide Protection, Armed Forces of the Philippines, Philippine Nationwide Police, and the Division of Financial system Planning and Growth, initially recognized 421 ghost flood management tasks.

Investigators had relied on the coordinates listed on the Sumbong sa Pangulo web site, launched by President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. on August 11, 2025, to encourage the general public to report anomalous flood management tasks.

The Fee on Audit (COA) beforehand flagged related discrepancies. In a number of stories, COA famous that in inspections, DPWH officers directed auditors to places that didn’t match the accredited undertaking plans.

The ICI beforehand mentioned that its investigation will deal with the 421 ghost flood management tasks it had discovered. Out of this, Philippine Nationwide Police chief Rodolfo Azurin mentioned the fee would prioritize 80 ghost flood management tasks linked to the high 15 flood management tasks named by President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.

Dismissed DPWH secretary Manuel Bonoan described the 421 ghost flood management tasks flagged as “thoughts boggling.”

Regardless of the failings within the database, DPWH Undersecretary Ricardo Bernabe III clarified that there are some validated ghost flood management tasks, which grew to become the premise of the complaints filed by the company earlier than the Workplace of the Ombudsman. 

Division of Justice performing Secretary Fredderick Vida additionally mentioned the flawed knowledge won’t have an effect on the company’s authorized actions associated to the flood management tasks.

The coordinates on the Sumbong sa Pangulo web site had been primarily based on
Multi-year Programming and Scheduling Software or MYPS coordinates, which don’t essentially level to the precise location of the flood management undertaking.

An evaluation of 337 flood management tasks discovered that the actual websites had been usually solely about 50 meters —or much less — away from the places recorded within the MYPS database. – Rappler.com