MANILA, Philippines — The Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) admitted that inspections of thousands of flood control projects nationwide must start over after investigators were misled by wrong location coordinates, raising concerns of further delays in resolving alleged ghost projects.

During a Senate Blue Ribbon Committee hearing on January 19, 2026, DPWH Undersecretary Arthur Bisnar confirmed that inspectors had been sent to incorrect sites because of faulty data. 

“Because the location coordinates provided and used by the validators were incorrect, of course, the effect was that they were misled into the wrong locations. Even the report they submitted is basically wrong, since the location coordinates they based their inspection on were already incorrect,” Bisnar said.

The error means that around 10,000 projects already inspected will have to be revisited, on top of thousands more that have yet to be checked. The revelation came as senators continued their probe into alleged ghost flood control projects, with Senate President Pro Tempore Panfilo Lacson chairing the hearing dubbed “Flooded Gates of Corruption”.

Former DPWH Secretary Manuel Bonoan also testified, saying he relied on data consolidated by the office of the late Undersecretary Maria Catalina Cabral. “Mr. Chair, of course I relied on the data that was generated by our people in the department, especially the office of the late undersecretary Cathy Cabral,” Bonoan explained, noting that the flawed coordinates were part of the official submissions.

The discovery of erroneous coordinates has cast doubt on earlier inspection reports and intensified scrutiny of DPWH’s internal processes. Lawmakers warned that the mistake could further delay accountability in cases where billions of pesos were allegedly lost to non-existent flood control projects.

The Senate vowed to continue its investigation, pressing DPWH officials to explain how such critical errors occurred and to ensure that future inspections are based on accurate and verifiable data.

Who Pays for the Restart

DPWH’s admission of wrong coordinates sounds technical, even honest. Restarting inspections can be framed as diligence, a reset to get facts right before naming culprits. Accuracy matters when billions are involved.

But resets are not neutral. Restarting thousands of inspections costs time, money, and public trust. Each delay pushes accountability further away while communities keep flooding. Errors this large are not free. Someone approved the data. Someone failed to verify it.

If investigations keep starting over, accountability weakens. So the real issue sharpens now. Do officials face consequences for this failure, or does the public quietly absorb the cost of every restart again?