Palace: Bonoan did not receive Aquino admin flood control master plan

Department of Public Works and Highways Secretary Manuel Bonoan — File photo

MANILA, Philippines — Malacañang on Wednesday said the P351-billion flood control master plan from the Aquino administration was not received by Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) Secretary Manuel Bonoan.

Palace press officer Claire Castro clarified that former DPWH Secretary Rogelio Singson’s statement that the Aquino administration completed the multi-billion-peso master plan before leaving office, but that succeeding governments did not pursue it.

READ: No work done: ‘Angry’ Marcos mulls raps vs Baliuag flood project builders

“We also asked Secretary Bonoan if these so-called master plans had been turned over. To his knowledge, and as he told us earlier, he also did not receive any,” Castro said at a briefing.

“Let me just repeat… Secretary Bonoan did not receive any turnover from then-DPWH Secretary Mark Villar,” she also said.

In an exclusive interview with Bilyonaryo News Channel on August 17, Singson said that during his six-year term as secretary, the DPWH had a total allocation of P160 billion, while the master plan they crafted amounted to P351 billion.

He said that with the DPWH’s much larger budget now, the project should have already been completed.

“We were only able to finish all the master plans when we were about to leave because when we started, the budget was very small. During the first two years of the Aquino administration, our budget was really limited,” Singson said.

“By the time we completed the master plan — and this is the important part — it was the master plan for the major river basin. That was what should have been followed, but nothing was done with it after we submitted all the master plans,” Singson also said.

READ: Palace: No response yet from contractor in flagged flood control project

At a press conference last August 11, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. said there were nearly 10,000 flood control projects under his administration, amounting to P545 billion.

However, only 15 contractors cornered a large portion of these projects, worth about P100 billion. One of them is St. Timothy Construction Corp., which the President flagged for an allegedly anomalous flood-control project in Bulacan. /das