Villa to public: Check DPWH's monitoring dashboard for infra update

Local

AMID concerns of existing "ghost" flood-control projects, residents of Central Visayas are being urged to open their browsers.

Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) Central Visayas Director Danilo Villa Jr. encouraged the public to use the agency’s project monitoring dashboard to verify infrastructure works in their communities.

This as the agency faced allegations of “ghost projects” elsewhere in the country.

“Before the instruction of the department, we have issued a memorandum to all the district engineering offices and also with us, the region. There is a team that came out ahead of the incoming auditors who will be coming in,” he said.

He described the move as a proactive measure, consistent with the directive of President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr., who earlier expressed anger after inspecting a supposed ghost project in Baliwag, Bulacan, where a reinforced concrete riverwall was listed as “100 percent complete” and fully paid for but did not exist on-site.

Villa said that the regional audit team also checks contractors’ performance and verifies whether reported damages have been repaired or if remediation works were done.

“So far, based on the report, we have issued a report that we are not affected by the guni-guning project. The most important thing for us is that all the projects implemented by Region 7, we will do it based on the locality and project,” he said.

To complement these internal checks, Villa highlighted the importance of the DPWH monitoring dashboard and Marcos’ new “Sumbong sa Pangulo” portal (sumbongsapangulo.ph), which both allow citizens to track project status, view completion percentages, and file complaints if they observe discrepancies on the ground.

Villa noted that the president’s initiative provided the public with a useful tool through the monitoring dashboard, which allows citizens to check if projects in their communities were actually implemented and to see their current status.

He added that people could also use the platform to report any irregularities they observed. He underscored that public involvement is key to ensuring accountability.

“Isa itong magandang halimbawa sa paghihikayat na magkaroon ng people’s participation, sa pag-monitor, pag-konsidera kung ating mga ginagawa ay karapat dapat at tama at may bigyan ng tamang direksyon ng ating administration," he added.

Villa further assured that region is not tainted by ghost projects.

“So far, just for the record, for DPWH, Region 7, there’s no ghost projects… this is based on the investigation report of our assigned. We are considering this as a valid report because we are not considering any ghost projects for this,” he said.

In Central Visayas, 576 out of 958 flood-control projects have been completed under a P73-billion allocation spanning 2022 to 2025.

Of these projects, 414 projects are lcoated in Cebu province, the second highest nationwide.

Villa said this scale reflects the region’s proactive push to address long-term flooding problems.

Beyond construction, DPWH 7 also coordinates with local governments and other agencies for flood-related measures such as clearing operations, desilting, declogging, and monitoring individual projects at the district level.(MyTVCebu)