MANILA: The Philippines’ corruption probe widened to more infrastructure projects on Tuesday (Sept 23), with a former public works official alleging that street lamps, roads and buildings are also overpriced and substandard.
More projects in Bulacan province north of the capital used cheaper materials with poor quality as a chunk of their budgets went to politicians’ pockets, former assistant district engineer Brice Hernandez told a Senate investigation on corruption surrounding flood-mitigation projects.
"All projects didn’t follow what were specified in the plans,” he said.
His comments illustrate the extent of corruption in government projects, with trillions of pesos potentially lost to graft in flood-control infrastructure alone. The graft scandal triggered thousands of Filipinos to hold protests over the weekend. - Bloomberg
