Metro Manila, Philippines – Senator Ping Lacson said on Tuesday, July 28, that his team turned over its findings on alleged ghost projects in Taguig City to the Office of the Ombudsman.
Lacson said Taguig had accumulated ₱14.4 billion in infrastructure projects from 2020 to 2025. The term ghost project refers to budget items that were fully paid but non-existent.
Taguig is a known Cayetano family political stronghold. Lani, Alan’s wife, is the sitting mayor and last held the position in 2010 to 2019. The senator’s estranged younger brother, Lino, was mayor from 2019 to 2022.
“We are looking at cases of plunder, malversation, violations of the Anti Graft and Corrupt Practices Act (RA 3019), etc.,” Lacson wrote on X.
“Just as we thought last year that Bulacan was the microcosm of flood control project anomalies, Taguig is something else – employing old and new tricks, like passing off an illegal reclamation project as slope protection structures with several ghost projects, cases of double appropriations, recycled photos belonging to past and already completed contracts to bill and collect for new ones – all controlled by one person, dating as far back as 2019,” wrote the police-officer-turned-senator.
The Bulacan ghost flood control projects sparked the controversy, triggered by the statements of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. in the 2025 State of the Nation Address, resulting in a congressional investigation and the subsequent filing of charges against high-profile lawmakers and officials of the Department of Public Works and Highways.
The legal action was in the middle of a word war between Lacson and Senate Minority Leader Alan Peter Cayetano, who had said in a Facebook Live post that it looked like the former national police chief doubled his wealth from 2022 to 2025.
Lacson had clarified his net worth actually grew more than four times in the years mentioned by Cayetano because he was out of government and engaged in successful real estate and trading ventures with partners.
Cayetano went live on Facebook to address the issue.
“I welcome that because in the same manner that I tell everyone that kailangan ng accountability, same din naman. Ang sabi ko lang naman, sa tamang venue, tamang panahon, and yung nga para makatutok, kasi malaman namin ano ba talaga ang accusation,” Cayetano said in a Facebook livestream less than an hour after Lacson announced the turnover of findings to the ombudsman.
[Translation: I welcome that because in the same manner that I tell everyone that we need accountability, I feel the same. What I’ve been saying is that it needs to come at the right venue at the right time, and so we can keep an eye on it to know what the accusations are.]
Cayetano admitted that he was shocked at Lacson’s comparison of Taguig to Bulacan.
“Witness ang buong kababayan namin sa Taguig at lahat ng nagiging bisita ang produkto ng good governance for, wala pa naman 20 years, 2010 till now and ako 1998 ‘til now bilang congressman,” Cayetano said.
[Translation: Our citizens in Taguig and other visitors have witnessed the results of good governance from 2010 until now, and in 1998 during my tenure as congressman.]
He said that he would face the accusations, which he described as general and sweeping, and it would not distract him from the impeachment trial of Vice President Sara Duterte.
Cayetano said he respected Lacson’s point of view, but from his own perspective, these accusations were malicious.
Read more about the word war between Lacson and Cayetano here:
Lacson sees possible plunder raps vs. Cayetano over Taguig ‘ghost’ projects
‘There is no turning back!’ Lacson calls out alleged Taguig ghost projects
Alan Cayetano’s proper place is in QC jail – Lacson
