BUILD, BUILD, STEAL: How Your 2025–2026 Roads Were Already Sold Before Congress Even Saw the Menu

Coming Soon to a District Near You: Ghost Projects, Real Kickbacks, Zero Accountability

By Louis ‘Barok‘ C Biraogo — December 1, 2025

THE GREATEST MENU NEVER PUBLISHED

(Now Serving: ₱721 Billion in 2025, ₱497 Billion in 2026 – Delivery Fee Charged to Your Grandchildren)

Mga ka-kweba, ladies and gentlemen of this perpetually shocked Republic, welcome to the hottest new government service: Project Pre-Order™ – where congressmen, senators, and cabinet secretaries can reserve multi-billion-peso bridges, roads, and flood-control miracles before the budget even leaves Malacañang.
No bidding required. No questions asked. Just pick your contractor, whisper sweet nothings to a compliant DPWH underling, and poof! – your wish list is magically coded “CENTI2025” and tucked into the National Expenditure Program (NEP).

Total damage: ₱1.218 trillion already hidden in plain sight.
And the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) has the complete customer list in a secret database.
They just refuse to show it.

Secretary Vince Dizon, your move.
Release the database or let history brand you the silent maître d’ of the biggest inside-job banquet since the Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) scandal.

***Chef’s special today—Ghost-Bridge Ramen: smells like asphalt, tastes like audit-proof air.***

THE HIDDEN KITCHEN WHERE LAWS GO TO DIE

This is not your lolo’s pork barrel. This is executive-level rigging on steroids.
While the public is told the NEP is a pristine, agency-crafted document (as mandated by Article VI, Section 24 of the 1987 Constitution), Batangas Rep. Leandro Leviste just kicked the kitchen door open and revealed the real chefs: politicians and contractors handing shopping lists to former Undersecretary Maria Catalina Cabral and her merry band of planners.

The result? Projects “supposedly” initiated by DPWH engineers that were actually pre-ordered by outsiders, then laundered into the NEP before Congress even gets the menu. When the House caught DPWH submitting funds for already-completed projects, did they clean house? No. They resubmitted with a fresh ₱100-billion mystery platter straight from the Central Office.

Same scam, earlier table.

STATUTORY BUTCHERY – THE LAWS THEY’RE WIPING THEIR FEET ON

Republic Act No. 9184 (Government Procurement Reform Act)
“Pre-ordering” = pre-selecting the winner before the bid is posted. That’s not planning; that’s rigging. Section 10 mandates competitive bidding as the general rule.
Republic Act No. 3019, §3(e) (Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act)
Hiding the real proponents while funneling contracts to anointed firms = manifest partiality + unwarranted benefits + undue injury. Sandiganbayan jackpot.
Republic Act No. 6713 (Code of Conduct and Ethical Standards for Public Officials)
Section 4 demands transparency and full public disclosure. Keeping a secret “who-ordered-what” database is a facial violation.
Belgica v. Ochoa, G.R. No. 208566 (2013)
The Supreme Court already killed post-enactment congressional insertions. So the racket just moved one step earlier—into the executive branch. Meet PDAF 2.0 in a hard hat.
Republic Act No. 7080 (An Act Defining and Penalizing the Crime of Plunder)
₱1.2 trillion. Systematic. Repeated overt criminal acts.
If this pattern doesn’t meet the threshold, the law might as well be toilet paper.

THE BLOODBATH PLAYBOOK – WHO GETS NAILED AND HOW

Rep. Leviste: March into the Office of the Ombudsman tomorrow, submit the full CENTI2025 files under oath, and bring ex-Usec Cabral with you. Be the whistleblower or be the tease—choose one.
Secretary Dizon & DPWH: Release the proponent database with timestamps and change logs. Your silence is confession.
Ombudsman & Independent Commission for Infrastructure (ICI): Subpoena the database. Forensic the edits. This isn’t rocket science; it’s grand larceny with spreadsheets.
Every Filipino with a pulse: File your Freedom of Information requests. File taxpayer suits. Bury the Ombudsman in complaints. This is armed robbery wearing a barong.

Because if we let ₱1.2 trillion vanish into pre-ordered black holes today, tomorrow the menu will be ₱5 trillion.
And the delivery fee will be your children’s future.

The kitchen is on fire.
Bring the receipts—or get burned.

— Barok