Former DPWH Bulacan district engineer fired over anomalous flood control projects
Newly minted DPWH Sec. Vince Dizon on Thursday, Sept. 4, said former Bulacan 1st District Engr. Henry Alcantara has been officially dismissed amid ghost flood control projects in the province.
Dizon said he'd also recommend the filing of criminal charges against Alcantara.
Alcantara approved several flood control projects in his area, including a P55 million reinforced concrete river wall in Brgy. Piel in Baliuag.
President Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr. inspected the project on Aug. 20 and noted it was a ghost project. The government has already paid P43.4 million to the contractor SYMS Construction Trading, plus another P5.9 million.
Marcos told reporters covering his inspection that he's "very angry" with what's happening there.
"P55 million completed ang record ng Public Works, [pero] walang ginawa. Kahit isang araw hindi nagtrabaho," he said.
The project's actual start date indicated was Feb. 2, 2025, and the contract expiry date was Oct. 22, 2025. Yet Marcos said that the report stated the project was already completed and fully paid for in June.
During the House infrastructure committee hearing on Sept. 2, Alcantara was quizzed about his background before becoming a DPWH contractor.
He said he earned his engineering degree from the University of Santo Tomas before working as a job order employee at the DPWH in 1994.
In 2019, then-DPWH Sec. Mark Villar appointed Alcantara as the district engineer of Bulacan's first engineering district.
Data from the Sumbong ng Pangulo website showed that Alcantara's office had the largest project cost among the DPWH's implementing offices, with 450 flood control projects worth P28.9 billion from 2022 to 2025.
Alcantara handled 13 localities in Bulacan, including the flood-prone Hagonoy, Baliwag, Calumpit, and Malolos.
He also signed two more contracts for other questionable flood control projects in Bulacan: one with Sarah Discaya's St. Timothy Construction Corporation worth P94.6 million and another with Wawao Builders worth P74.6 million.
Dizon said Wawao Builders and Syms Construction Trading are also permanently blacklisted amid the issue.
Other contractors of ghost projects will also face an "automatic perpetual ban," he added.
During his fourth State of the Nation Address, Marcos firmly called out government officials who allegedly commit corruption, particularly in flood control projects, in light of the heavy rains and flooding at the time.
He ordered the DPWH to "immediately submit" to him the list of flood control projects from every region that were started and completed in the last three years.
Last Aug. 11, Marcos shared a list of the top DPWH contractors with the most flood control projects.
Sen. Ping Lacson previously told dzBB that since 2011, about P1 trillion allocated for flood control projects may have been lost to corruption.
