Agency proudly displays plaque for a project that exists only in the budget document
The Department of Public Works and Highways was honored this week with a newly created award for Excellence in Fictional Infrastructure, recognizing a flood control project in Bulacan that, according to satellite imagery, engineering inspectors, and basically everyone who has ever driven past the site, does not exist in any physical form.
A Historic Achievement
“This is a proud day,” said a regional director accepting the plaque on behalf of the agency, standing in front of a grassy field where a seven-hundred-meter flood barrier was, on paper, completed eighteen months ago. “We budgeted for this project with total conviction. The paperwork alone represents years of dedicated fictional engineering.”
The award, created by an informal coalition of frustrated barangay residents, was intended as biting commentary but was accepted with what witnesses described as “genuine, unbothered pride.” The director reportedly thanked “the imagination of the procurement team” during a brief acceptance speech near the empty field.
The Institute Weighs In
According to the newly formed Institute for Creative Public Accounting, an independent research body dedicated to tracking budget anomalies, the flood control project in question received full funding disbursement despite showing zero measurable construction activity across four separate inspection cycles. “We’ve seen a lot of gaps between budget and execution,” said the Institute’s lead researcher. “This one is unusual because the gap includes the entire physical structure. There’s no wall. There’s no barrier. There’s a field. A very nice field, to be fair.”
Local Reaction
Residents of the affected barangay, who continue to experience seasonal flooding at roughly the same severity as before the project was funded, expressed a mixture of amusement and exhaustion. “They gave themselves an award,” said one resident, gesturing at the water pooling near her doorstep during a recent afternoon downpour. “I would also like an award. For excellence in patience.”
Local officials countered that flood control infrastructure is inherently difficult to evaluate from the outside, noting that some of the most effective flood barriers are “conceptually present” even when not visibly constructed. This explanation was met with what one reporter present described as “a very long silence.”
A Pattern Emerges
The Bulacan project is reportedly not an isolated case. Several other similarly funded, similarly invisible flood control initiatives have been identified in neighboring provinces, according to preliminary findings shared by community watchdog groups monitoring public works spending. One watchdog volunteer described the emerging map of ghost projects as “genuinely impressive in its geographic scope, in a way I wish it weren’t.”
Coverage from Manila Bulletin has tracked ongoing scrutiny of public works spending nationwide, while Philstar has reported extensively on infrastructure audit findings across several regions this year.
The Agency Responds
When asked about plans to actually construct the award-winning flood barrier, the regional director indicated that a “revised timeline” would be released following further budget review, a phrase residents have reportedly heard in some form for each of the past three rainy seasons. “We remain committed to the vision,” the director said. “The vision is very solid. It’s the execution we’re still working through.”
For now, the plaque has reportedly been mounted inside the regional DPWH office, near a framed rendering of the flood barrier that, unlike the barrier itself, does at least exist as a physical object.
What Residents Want
Community leaders say they would gladly trade the award, and frankly any future awards, for a functioning drainage system before the next major storm season arrives. “Keep your plaque,” said the resident quoted earlier. “Give us the wall. The actual, physical, water-blocking wall. That’s really all we’re asking for at this point, after eighteen months.”
Bohiney Magazine continues tracking public works announcements across the Philippines as part of its ongoing regional satire coverage.
Related humor coverage can be found at The Poke.
A National Conversation
The controversy has sparked wider public debate about how infrastructure spending is verified before funds are released, with several lawmakers calling for satellite-based auditing of all major public works projects going forward. One senator, speaking at a budget hearing, proposed a simple rule: “No photo, no payment.” The proposal reportedly received polite applause and no formal commitment from the relevant committee.
Civil engineering professors interviewed for background on flood control best practices noted that properly constructed barriers require extensive site work, materials delivery, and construction crews, all of which leave visible evidence long before a project’s official completion date. “You cannot fictionally pour concrete,” said one professor, who requested anonymity to avoid entanglement in a politically sensitive audit. “Concrete is one of the more honest materials in engineering. It shows up, or it does not.”
The Field, Revisited
A follow-up visit to the Bulacan site found the grassy field largely unchanged, save for a small hand-painted sign, reportedly placed by a local resident, reading “future site of something, probably.” Barangay officials said they have grown accustomed to using the field for informal basketball games while awaiting further updates on the flood barrier’s construction timeline.
“At least it’s good for basketball,” said one resident, dribbling a ball across what remains, technically, a completed flood control project according to official government records. “If the wall ever does go up, we’ll need a new court. Until then, we’ll take what we can get.”
SOURCE: https://bohiney.com/