By Zia Luna
There he is on television, Senator Mark Villar, wearing the face of a stern investigator. The irony is thick. This is the same Mark Villar who once ruled over the Department of Public Works and Highways, the single largest budget-hoarding agency in government and the most notorious breeding ground of corruption.
Now he plays the role of corruption cop. It is the greatest costume change in Philippine politics.
Villar investigating DPWH corruption is like an arsonist leading a fire probe, or a thief suddenly appointed to guard the vault. For five years, from 2016 to 2021, Villar controlled billions in infrastructure funds.
And under his watch, billions more vanished into “ghost projects”—roads that existed only on paper, bridges that were ribbon-cut in glossy brochures but never built, and flood control projects that did nothing to stop the floods. The DPWH under Villar was not building infrastructure, it was building illusions.
Yet through it all, Villar smiled for the cameras, posed with hard hats, and basked in ribbon cuttings. He never sounded the alarm. He never admitted the rot under his own nose. And now, as senator, he sits in hearings wagging his finger at others and lecturing about accountability.
Accountability, of all things—the word rolls off his tongue as if he invented it. If hypocrisy were an Olympic sport, Villar would sweep gold, silver, and bronze.
The rot, however, has not gone away. In fact, it is being exposed more openly today. Las Piñas Rep. Mark Anthony Santos revealed that 42 DPWH projects in his district alone, worth millions of pesos, were carried out without a single permit.
Forty-two illegal projects—built without building permits, zoning clearances, or electrical and plumbing approvals. Nineteen are already completed, seven are still under construction, fifteen were slapped with violation notices, and one had to be stopped outright.
The City Engineering Office was forced to issue orders directing contractors and government offices to retroactively secure their documents. Santos warned that if these illegal structures collapse or encroach on neighboring properties, liability falls squarely on the owners and the professionals who signed the plans, who could even lose their licenses under existing laws.
Think about that: private engineers can be punished for violating regulations, yet DPWH can ram through dozens of unpermitted projects and continue business as usual.
This is not “Build, Build, Build.” This is “Break, Break, Break”—breaking the law, breaking public trust, and breaking the patience of taxpayers. And still Villar, who once presided over this chaos, has the gall to position himself as the Senate’s corruption watchdog.
In truth, he should be in the hot seat, not holding the gavel. He should be grilled about ghost projects, not lecturing about them. Communities died in floods his department was supposed to prevent. Billions vanished while he signed the budgets. Now he calls for accountability, and the Senate nods along, as if the problem is outside the room.
Every single senator knows the truth. Those ghost projects happened while they were there. While they voted. While they smiled for cameras. While they pocketed pork. The real ghost in all this is not missing bridges or phantom flood walls. The real ghost is accountability. It never shows up.
If the Senate is serious, Villar should be interrogating his own conscience, not grandstanding at hearings. Until he explains what happened to the billions that disappeared under his watch, every gavel he bangs is hollow, every lecture he delivers is theater, and every word he utters is an insult to taxpayers.
The Filipino people deserve truth, not tricks. They deserve answers, not acting. They deserve justice, not jokes. Mark Villar running a corruption investigation is not reform—it is farce. And in this Senate circus, Villar is not the investigator. He is the clown.
