By CHRIS V. PANGANIBAN
SAN FRANCISCO, Agusan del Sur—As Filipinos honor the dearly departed this Undas on November 1 and 2, Siargao and Surigao del Norte residents say it’s not only ancestors that haunt their memories—ghost infrastructure projects, meant to be roads, seawalls, and flood barriers, linger as painful reminders of vanished public trust.
It was Surigao del Norte Sangguniang Panlalawigan (SP) Member Atty. John Cubilan who sounded the alarm, presented findings during a recent regular session at the SP Session Hall on October 20 that peeled away the shiny surface of government progress.
Cubilan revealed that multiple projects, marked “100% complete” in the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) portal, were either missing, half-built, or altogether non-existent upon his inspection.
He called it a case of “systematic falsification”—shocking, especially as communities prepared to visit their loved ones’ graves, and found only gravel paths and abandoned sites on the way.
“Who would have thought that our greatest ‘multo” is the one that got away? The ones of stories we’d tell to scare the children?” Cubilan asked in his privilege speech.
SP member Jeff Larong told Cubilan the ghost projects investigation should also cover District 2 in the mainland Surigao del Norte.
But his motion for a resolution on the issue was not approved by the body since he could not present ghost projects in the second district, only reports of cracks on concrete bridges.
Several concrete bridges in Surigao del Norte’s second district—completed during the tenure of former congressman Robert Ace Barbers—have come under fire after residents shared images of visible cracks online.
The Bonifacio-Poctoy Bridge drew particular concern, with critics alleging substandard work linked to Barbers’ projects.
Barbers responded in a press conference with local media on October 20, by labeling these viral reports “fake news,” explaining that concrete epoxy was used per engineering standards for minor hairline cracks and asserting that construction oversight belonged to project engineers and contractors, not directly to him.
An extensive on-field investigative coverage of Claver town-based local journalist Edito Mapayo reveals how Boometrix Development Corporation—closely linked to the long-entrenched Matugas family—garnered billions in government projects across the province, with many structures formally declared finished despite work being poorly done, delayed, or altogether absent.
Online news portal Rappler reports that Boometrix garnered an estimated P10 billion DPWH projects in Caraga region, one of the highest infrastructure contractors in the region.
But Dapa, Siargao Island Mayor Elizabeth Matugas, mother of Boometric owner Ronald Abejo, Jun Clerigo of RPN DXKS FM station in Surigao City in his program “Radyo Ronda Balita” on October 10 that she already relinquished her affiliation with the company since she became mayor in 2013.
“I want to clear this to the people of Dapa that Boometrix projects are not implemented in my area of jurisdiction,” she clarified.
Mapayo posted and aired his expose in his morning public affairs program “Bogboganay sa Buntag” over Lite FM in Barangay Mabini in Placer, Surigao del Norte.
Among the most glaring instances in Mapayo’s broadcast vlogs on his social media page: the Maasin River Bridge and the Asinan Bridge, both reported completed in government portals, but left half-built for months.
“These weren’t ghost projects in the sense of being invisible—they stood there as half-remembered promises,” said one resident, who provided photos to SiargaoSecrets so cial media page under the condition of anonymity for safety.
Social media watchdogs such as Siargao Secret and Cup of Politics Surigao Today, along with investigative broadcasts by Bombo Radyo Surigao, amplified public scrutiny. Frustrated locals shared damning images online; the hashtag #CursedSiargao spread as evidence mounted.
Cubilan, during a recent Sangguniang Panlalawigan session, denounced the “systematic falsification” of completion reports and called for formal probes and Ombudsman involvement.
Field verifications by Bombo Radyo Butuan field reports and Siargao Secret added weight to Cubilan’s claims.
Residents, journeying for Undas, found the Roxas–Sta. Paz Road and Bitaug Seawall only in paperwork, and the “improved” road in San Isidro was just a muddy trail, unfit even for a funeral procession.
He urged the provincial board to demand accountability and to call on Ombudsman investigators to follow the paper trail, so these ghost projects don’t rest in peace unpunished.
Surigao del Norte Gov. Robert Lyndon Barbers responded with an urgent commitment: “We will not tolerate deception or misuse of public funds.”
Provincial leaders have joined the Commission on Audit and Department of Public Works and Highways Caraga Regional Office in Butuan City in field validations, hoping finally to exorcise the specter of corruption.
Rep. Bernadette Barbers added her own vow that justice would not fade away with the season.
For now, every trip to the cemetery along muddy roads and vulnerable shorelines reminds residents that faith in government is tested more than ever.
With the results of the joint COA–provincial probe set for release as Undas unfolds, residents wait and hope not only to remember the dead, but to see lessons from these haunted promises finally put to rest—with Cubilan leading calls for the truth to emerge.
A growing number of infrastructure projects in Siargao, officially marked as “100% complete,” are facing intense scrutiny after investigators and concerned citizens discovered that many remain unfinished, abandoned, or have not even begun.
Social media watchdog Siargao Secret has compiled a list of these questionable projects, including major bridges, road openings, and flood mitigation structures, such as the Maasin Bridge, San Isidro Bridge, Asinan Bridge, Jaboy–Caridad Road, Tuburan to Mahayahay Road, and several preventive maintenance initiatives across the island.
Some projects were reportedly only rushed into preliminary construction after whistleblowers applied public pressure online.
Local residents and Siargao Secrets are calling on the DPWH Central Office and Commission on Audit (COA) to conduct thorough inspections and verify the status of these projects. Billboards advertising completion remain incomplete in many areas, while millions of pesos of taxpayer funds are at stake.
With numerous projects exposed as “ghost” constructions or stuck in limbo, both the public and online watchdogs are demanding accountability and a full audit. They aim to ensure transparency, confirm which projects were genuinely completed, and identify those that may have been improperly validated.
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