MONEY FLOODING THEIR POCKETS

Lifted from Gerry Cacanindin 19 September 2025 Friday 



How DPWH engineers and insiders Brice Hernandez, Jaypee Mendoza, and Henry Alcantara turned flood control projects into their personal cash machine.

The playbook is simple but effective.

It starts with the real big boys. DPWH, DBM, DepDev, Malacañang, and Congress deciding the budget. This is where senators and congressmen sneak in allocations for their districts or their pet projects. Insertions can happen anytime, even at the last minute during bicam talks.

Once the money is locked in, politicians make sure it lands in areas where they have “friendly” district or regional engineers. If their guy isn’t there, they pressure DPWH to reshuffle engineers until DPWH assigns the preferred one. With a trusted engineer in place, the funds can keep flowing to that area year after year.

Enter the “BGC Boys”.

They don’t decide the budget, but they execute. They draw up the technical plan, run the bidding, and release the funds. 

First, they lined up contractors, sometimes real firms, sometimes paper companies that only existed on documents. These contractors would “borrow” licenses or credentials just to qualify on paper.

Next came the magic. Projects would be awarded and given a Notice to Proceed almost overnight. In DPWH parlance, this is often referred to as “mobilization”. 

Within days, contractors were already billing the government, claiming that the work was 40–50% complete, even when no backhoe had touched the ground. Payments were released just as quickly, with paperwork to match. Logbooks, progress reports, photos, even certificates of completion. Many of these were falsified or recycled from other projects.

On paper, everything looked proper. In reality, some of these projects were ghost projects. Roads, dikes, and flood barriers that existed only in documents. Others were half-finished or done so poorly they were useless. But because the papers checked out, the money kept flowing.

To move the stolen money, the group allegedly funneled it through casinos. Cash was converted into chips, “gambled,” then cashed out again, sometimes under aliases. On record, it looked like gambling winnings or losses. In practice, it was a laundering operation. Dirty money going in, clean money coming out.

The scheme thrived because of speed and weak oversight. Approvals happened so fast that inspectors didn’t have time to verify if any real work was being done. Some auditors relied only on submitted photos or reports. By the time suspicions were raised, the money was already gone, hidden behind contractors’ names and casino ledgers.

In short, the alleged “BGC Boys” turned government flood projects into ghost projects, turned paperwork into cash, and then turned cash into casino chips, leaving behind unfinished dikes, wasted funds, and communities still vulnerable to floods.

To think these “BGC Boys” are only concentrated in Bulacan. Who knows how many other “BGC Boys” are operating in the entire country in cahoots with people we elect.

Through extrapolation and educated guessing alone, the amount of money being stolen from us nationwide runs in the trillions. 

Money meant to give us peace of mind from flood-free communities. Budgets meant to give our kids better schools, better education. Funds meant to provide us with better roads, better public transportation, free world-class healthcare.

Instead, they shower themselves with cars, mansions, luxury goods, trips abroad, and lifestyles few of us could even imagine.

These “BGC Boys” are the lowest hanging fruits. If we want real, revolutionary, and institutional change, we need to stop voting for dynasties and corrupt politicians. There is no other way.

Edit: Added a correction and clarification on the actual budget process. Thank you, Dean Ador Torneo for flagging me on the budget process.

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