MANILA: The Philippines will move to dismantle the "syndicate” that pilfered public funds while ramping up infrastructure spending early next year to revive the economy, according to a key cabinet official.
The Department of Public Works and Highways will cleanse its ranks to ensure the corruption scandal it’s currently embroiled in won’t happen again, Secretary Vince Dizon (pic) said.
"This syndicate has been here for so long,” Dizon said in an interview on Tuesday (Dec 9).
"That’s why it’s very hard to destroy this syndicate - it’s from top to bottom - but we have to do it.”
More than a dozen personnel at the department have been charged or arrested, while former senior agency officials have been recommended for case buildups, he said.
Investigations are ongoing but Dizon expects that criminal cases will be filed against a "minimum” of 100 agency officials.
The agency mandated to be the state’s main engineering arm will also boost government spending in the first half of 2026 by finishing roads, bridges and other government buildings, Dizon said.
It has been the focus of public scrutiny and anger since President Ferdinand Marcos Jr exposed in July how corruption has thrived in the organisation tasked with projects to ease flooding in the typhoon-prone nation.
The corruption mess has slowed down sharply what was once one of the fastest-growing economies in Asia as the government tightened infrastructure spending. Investor sentiment has also soured as growth prospects dimmed.
The investigations that followed, including by one that Marcos set up, revealed a network of graft where politicians allegedly conspired with public works officials and contractors to pocket billions of dollars in government funds.
Some employees from the department have also supposedly colluded with contractors to rig biddings, and allegedly falsified documents to show that non-existent or substandard projects were completed.
Dizon was appointed to the department in August after its former head quit as the scandal erupted. The agency in recent weeks has been running after and filing charges against erring employees and contractors.
The goal is to hold people to account and "make everybody in the department realise that this is serious,” he said.
"That they will go to jail, they will spend the rest of their lives in jail,” Dizon said. "We have to put the fear of God in them.” - Bloomberg
