Taguig Is Not in Leyte: The DPWH’s 600-Kilometer Ghost Project

Senator Lacson found the receipts. Secretary Dizon found ‘none.’ The geotags found Leyte.

By Louis ‘Barok‘ C. Biraogo — September 28, 2026

“Taguig is not in Leyte. Unless, of course, you’re the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH).”

That’s the question that should be echoing through the halls of the DPWH right now, and yet, somehow, we’re still stuck in a political circus where the Secretary of Public Works looks the Senate Minority Leader in the eye and says, with a straight face, that there are “none.”

Let me translate that for the non-lawyers in the room: Vince Dizon is either lying, incompetent, or he doesn’t know how to read his own department’s inspection reports. And in the Philippines, where flood control has become the latest get-rich-quick scheme of choice, that’s not just a gaffe. That’s a criminal liability waiting to happen.

**“Taguig Is Not in Leyte—Unless You’re Billing the Government.”**

The Geography Lesson Nobody Asked For

The facts are almost too stupid to be real. But that’s how corruption works in this country—not with sophisticated shell companies and offshore accounts, but with photos of Tacloban being billed as Taguig.

Senator Ping Lacson dropped the nuclear option this week: Contract ID 220B0106, a Taguig flood control project with St. Timothy Construction (the Discayas, naturally), where the geotagged photos attached to the billing reports pointed approximately 600 kilometers away—in Leyte province.

Six hundred kilometers. That’s not a clerical error. That’s not a Global Positioning System (GPS) glitch. That’s not a “system malfunction.” That’s the kind of mistake you make when you think nobody’s actually checking.

And here’s the kicker: the DPWH’s own inspection report confirmed that the coordinates “do not correspond with the actual project site verified during inspection.” The Bureau of Quality and Safety and the Bureau of Maintenance—Dizon’s own people—documented this.

Yet when Senator Alan Peter Cayetano asked during a budget hearing if there were ghost projects in Taguig, Dizon’s answer was a single word: “None.”

Let me say that again. None.

This is the same Vince Dizon who was appointed to “clean house” after the flood control scandal broke. The same Vince Dizon who once served as a consultant to Cayetano from 2013 to 2016—a relationship that, while not disqualifying in itself, is certainly curious given the circumstances. And now he’s telling the Senate—under oath, presumably—that Taguig is ghost-project-free while his own engineers have documented otherwise.

The Billing Timeline of a Ghost

The paper trail is almost poetic in its damning clarity. Let’s walk through it, because it reads like a guide on “How to Get Away with Corruption Until Someone Actually Reads the Documents.”

June 23, 2022: A 15% advance payment of P13,738,755.81 is released. The billing photographs attached? All geotagged in Tacloban City, Leyte.
July 27, 2022: A partial billing of P37.162 million. Images? None attached.
September 12, 2022: P19.174 million. Images attached, but coordinates? Stripped.
September 22, 2022: P21.202 million. Coordinates? Still gone.
February 22, 2023: P18.960 million. Final billing. Coordinates? Nowhere to be found.

So the first set of photos is from Leyte. Then the coordinates magically disappear. Then the coordinates stay gone.

This is what forensic auditors call “consciousness of guilt.” This is what a prosecutor calls “a pattern.” This is what a defense lawyer calls “a very difficult case to explain.”

Lacson put it perfectly: “Like toothpaste squeezed from the tube, there’s no putting it back in.”

The AI Doesn’t Lie (But the Contractors Might)

If the Leyte coordinates weren’t enough, Lacson also dropped the Artificial Intelligence (AI) bombshell: DPWH’s own analysis of 15,523 billing photographs from Taguig projects (2017-2025) flagged 1,079 pairs with “high visual similarity.”

That’s 1,079 pairs of photos that are suspiciously similar. Across 180 unique contracts. And the contractors with the most flagged projects?

Dahl Construction (16)
L.R. Tiqui Builders (12)
729 Construction (10)
RVR3 (10)
Toughbuilt (9)

Some of these names are already familiar to anyone following the flood control scandal. Some are new. None of them should be comfortable right now.

Now, to be fair to the civil libertarians in the audience: AI similarity detection is a lead, not a conviction. Similar photos could mean identical project components, standardized photography, or contractors who simply aren’t creative. But 1,079 pairs across 180 contracts? That’s not a coincidence. That’s a pattern.

And patterns, in graft cases, are how you prove conspiracy.

The Discaya Connection

Let’s talk about the elephant in the room. St. Timothy Construction—the contractor for Contract 220B0106—is owned by Pacifico “Curlee” and Cezarah “Sarah” Discaya, the couple who have become the face of the flood control scandal.

The Discayas are not amateurs. They were ranked third among the top 15 contractors who cornered P100 billion in flood control projects. They control nine construction companies. Sarah Discaya ran for Pasig mayor (and lost spectacularly to Vico Sotto), suggesting the wealth was being converted into political ambition.

And now? The Ombudsman has already filed graft and malversation charges against them for a P53.9 million Bulacan project where payments were released despite unapproved disbursement vouchers and no basis for computation. Two of their firms have been blacklisted by Dizon’s own DPWH for contract defaults.

This is not a contractor with a clean record. This is a contractor with an active criminal case and a pattern of default.

And yet, Dizon says there are no ghost projects in Taguig.

The Cayetano Question

Here’s where it gets politically uncomfortable. Alan Peter Cayetano’s wife, Lani, is the mayor of Taguig. The Cayetano family has dominated Taguig politics for decades. And when Lacson started raising questions about ghost projects in Taguig, it was Cayetano—the Senate Minority Leader—who asked Dizon the question that produced the “none” answer.

Cayetano has publicly challenged Lacson to identify specific projects and provide evidence. He’s called it a “demolition job” and a “witch hunt.” He’s framed it as political payback for the Senate leadership struggle.

Is that possible? Sure. Lacson and Cayetano have a documented feud. Politics in the Philippines is personal, petty, and often performative.

But here’s the thing: the documents don’t care about your political affiliations. The geotagged photos don’t care that Cayetano is Minority Leader. The AI analysis doesn’t care that Dizon used to be Cayetano’s consultant. The billing records don’t care that Lacson might have presidential ambitions.

The documents say what they say. And what they say is that Taguig has been billing the government for projects that may not exist, using photos taken 600 kilometers away, from a contractor with a criminal record and nine shell companies.

The Real Scandal

The real scandal here isn’t just one contract. It’s the institutional contradiction Lacson has exposed.

Dizon’s DPWH has inspection reports documenting ghost projects. Dizon’s DPWH has AI analysis flagging 1,079 suspicious photo pairs. Dizon’s DPWH has blacklisted Discaya firms for defaults. And yet Dizon himself—the man appointed to clean house—tells the Senate there are “none.”

This is either:

A failure of information management so profound that the Secretary doesn’t know what his own bureau chiefs are finding, or
A deliberate misrepresentation designed to protect political allies and institutional reputations.

Neither is acceptable. One is incompetence. The other is obstruction.

And if it’s the latter—if Dizon knew about the inspection reports and chose to tell the Senate “none” anyway—then we’re not just talking about contractors who defrauded the government. We’re talking about a cover-up.

What Happens Next

Lacson has submitted at least 45 case studies to the Ombudsman. The Ombudsman has launched a fact-finding investigation. Subpoenas have been issued to the DPWH, the Philippine Reclamation Authority, the Land Registration Authority, and the Taguig Registry of Deeds.

The Ombudsman has already shown it’s willing to file charges against the Discayas. The question is whether it will have the courage to follow the paper trail into the DPWH itself—and whether it will have the political independence to investigate a sitting Secretary who was appointed by the President.

The ball is in the Ombudsman’s court. But the Senate—and the public—should be asking one question above all others:

If there are no ghost projects in Taguig, why are there photos from Leyte?

Answer that, Secretary Dizon. We’ll wait.

Louis “Barok” C. Biraogo is a writer and the author of the Kweba ni Barok blog. He has never taken a photo of a flood control project in Tacloban and billed it to Taguig. But then again, he’s not a DPWH contractor.

Key Citations

A. Reports & Studies

Lacson, Panfilo. “Analysis of Potential Similar Billing Photographs from 2017–2025 of Taguig Projects Using AI-Based Image Similarity Detection Approach.” Cited in Hannah L. Torregoza, “Lacson: Dizon’s ‘No Ghost Projects’ Claim in Taguig Contradicts DPWH Reports.” Manila Bulletin, 26 Sept. 2026.
Department of Public Works and Highways. Site inspection report on Contract ID 220B0106. Cited in Catherine S. Valente, “Lacson Presses Dizon over Taguig Project.” The Manila Times, 28 Sept. 2026.