A NUMBER of contractors of flood control projects have sent feelers they want to testify before the Blue Ribbon Committee, panel chairman Sen. Rodante Marcoleta said yesterday.
However, Marcoleta said, his office will first have to know what information the contractors will give before he decides if they can be considered as witnesses.
“There are feelers, but I want to know the extent of what they will say. If there is nothing new, so how will we take them? The best to is to first determine if they will they identify people involved,” he said in Filipino in an interview at the Senate.
Marcoleta also said his office is checking reports that a contractor who has been skipping the hearings is in the US, and may soon come back home. He did not identify the contractor.
The Blue Ribbon has subpoenaed contractors and engineers of the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH), who failed to show up in the first two hearings of the committee.
They were ordered to attend third hearing set for September 8, or arrest warrants will be issued against them.
Subpoenaed were Maritoni Meligrito, managing officer of Elite General Contractor and Development Corp.; Darcy Kimel Respicio, general manager of Darcy and Anna Builders and Trading; Brice Ercison Hernandez, former assistant district engineer of the 1st Engineering District of Bulacan; Jaypee Mendoza, DPWH 1st Bulacan Engineering District chief of construction division; Pacifico Discaya II, managing officer of Alpha and Omega and husband of Sarah Discaya; and Juanito Mendoza, accountant of the 1st Bulacan Engineering District.
The Department of Justice last night said Justice Secretary Jesus Remulla signed a request from the Blue Ribbon for the issuance of immigration lookout bulletin orders (ILBOs) to persons involved in anomalous flood control projects.
Justice assistant secretary and spokesperson Jose Dominic Clavano said the list is composed of DPWH officials and contractors but did not provide names.
“The Secretary has signed the initial batch of ILBOs. This is the request of Senator Marcoleta from the Blue Ribbon Committee. The request of (Public Works) Secretary (Vince) Dizon was received today and the additional ILBOs will be signed tomorrow,” Clavano said.
Earlier yesterday, Marcoleta said he was considering the ILBO request to make sure that his committee is informed of the whereabouts of the concerned individuals.
INCONSISTENCIES
Senate President pro tempore Jinggoy Estrada said senators are considering citing Cezarah Rowena “Sarah” Discaya in contempt because of inconsistencies in her testimony during last Monday’s hearing.
Discaya is the owner of Alpha and Omega General Contractors & Development Corp. and has interests in eight other construction firms either owned by close relatives or former employees.
Among the inconsistencies, Estrada said, was when Discaya told the panel that she has divested her interests in eight other construction firms, but it was later found that she still acts as the chief finance officer.
Estrada said Discaya also lied when she said that she owns only 28 luxury vehicles, but a check with the Land Transportation Office showed she actually owns 40 high-end vehicles.
“She is a blatant liar. Her statements are full of inconsistencies,” he added.
Estrada, in the hearing last Monday, said he has information that nine companies which Discaya either owns or have interests in have been joining “mock” biddings. He said
the companies have been bidding against each other in government contracts so they can corner government projects.
Discaya denied the mock biddings but when pressed by Estrada, she admitted her companies participated in biddings for the same project.
The Philippine Contractors Accreditation Board (PCAB) said it revoked the licenses of Discaya’s nine construction companies after her admission at the Senate hearing.
The companies are Alpha & Omega Gen. Contractor & Development Corporation,
St. Matthew General Contractor and Development Corp., St. Gerrard Construction Gen. Contractor & Development Corp., St. Timothy Construction Corp., Amethyst Horizon Builders and Gen. Contractor & Development Corp., and St. Matthew General Contractor & Development Corp., Great Pacific Builders and General Contractor Inc., YPR General Contractor and Construction Supply Inc., and Way Maker One Person Corp.
Sen. Juan Miguel Zubiri said the ongoing investigations should not zero in only on flood projects. He said the investigations can also look into rock netting projects, solar lamps, multi-purpose buildings, road projects, and dredging, among others.
He said there is no way for the government to check whether these projects were really implemented, especially the dredging of waterways.
As an example, he said a stage roof which was recently finished in Albay collapsed, hurting a number of students.
He said all contractors and government officials behind these anomalous government projects should be slapped with plunder, graft and corruption, and syndicated estafa so they will not have the chance to post bail.
“If investigations reveal forgery, they should also be filed with falsification of public documents under the Revised Penal Code,” he added.
Sen. Ronald dela Rosa said the ongoing investigations of the House of Representatives, Senate, and an independent body to be created by President Ferdinand Marcos Jr should investigate anomalous flood control projects not just from 2016, the year that Discaya said their company started to bid in such government projects.
Dela Rosa made the remark after a viral video showing him apparently stunned when Discaya said that their companies started to bid and were awarded flood control projects in 2016, the year when then Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte became President.
Netizens criticized dela Rosa, staunch Duterte ally, for stopping asking questions from Discaya upon hearing the year 2016.
Dela Rosa said it was not true.
“We must investigate the anomalies in flood control project and this does not mean that if they happened during the time of former President Duterte, they will be exempted. If they erred, they must face the investigations, even if it was during the time of PNoy (former President Benigno Aquino),” he said in Filipino.
He said Discaya was definitely lying when she testified last Monday, thus he is one with Estrada in saying she can be cited in contempt.
Sen. Panfilo Lacson said the government may be committing a “bigger crime against the Filipino people” if it will allow those responsible for the anomalous flood control projects go unpunished.
“With DOF’s mind-boggling estimated economic loss of P118.5 billion due to ‘ghost’ flood control projects, if those responsible go unpunished, the government may be committing a bigger crime against the Filipino people,” Lacson said in a post on X.
He was referring to an estimated given by Finance Secretary Ralph Recto indicating that P118.5 billion could have created around 266,000 jobs for Filipinos.
INFRA COMM
Rep. Terry Ridon (PL, Bicol Saro) said the House Infrastructure Committee (Infra Comm) will have to invite Rep. Zaldy Co (PL, Ako Bicol) if its ongoing investigation will show he is linked to a contractor of anomalous flood control projects.
“If there is a showing that there is an anomalous transaction, anomalous contract, anomalous project, substandard or ghost project to a company that is linked to him, then of course we will be compelled to invite him,” Ridon told reporters on Tuesday night after the joint panel’s initial hearing.
Ridon chairs the House committee on public accounts which is part of the Infra Comm along with the committees on good government and public accountability and on public works.
Co, whose name has been dragged into the flood control controversy for allegedly being one of the founders of Sunwest Construction, which was one of the Top 15 contractors identified by the President, has been silent on the issue.
The lawmaker, who chaired the powerful House Committee on Appropriations in the 19th Congress, is accused of being behind the billions in insertions in the 2025 budget.
Navotas Rep. Tobias Tiangco, an independent, protested during the hearing about Co not being invited to the next hearing, saying that would only mean that “congressmen are exempted.”
“The bicam insertion (in the 2025 GAA) of P13.803 billion was under the name of Zaldy Co as proponent and we don’t want to invite him as resource person?” he told the joint panel.
Ridon said it would be better for Tiangco to bring the matter to the House Committee on Appropriations since the Infra Comm is focused on failed and ghost flood control projects, and not the insertions in the annual national budget.
“It is just Congressman Tiangco raising it. If he actually wants to do it, he should file an actual resolution looking into this budget insertion,” he said.
‘BIG WHALE’
Ridon also laughed off former Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) Bulacan First District Engineer Henry Alcantara’s defense that he could be held liable only for negligence on the ghost and substandard projects in the province that were personally inspected by President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. last month.
Ridon said Alcantara “is not only a big fish.” “He is a whale. Ang dami po talagang mga bagay po na talagang pinakialaman niya, and siyempre, may showing po talaga na ‘yung kanyang (He meddled with a lot of things and or course it really a shows that his) lifestyle is really different from ordinary engineers of the DPWH,” he said.
“Negligence is his defense on this entire endeavor. We reject this defense. You cannot have plunder [of public funds] if you’re just negligent. What I’m stating today is, he knew it. He intended to ghost it,” he said.
The project in question is the P55.7-million “ghost” flood control project in Baliuag, Bulacan, which the President also inspected, was also not a congressional insertion.
He said the reinforced concrete river wall project in Purok 4, Barangay Piel, Baliuag, Bulacan, which was implemented by the DPWH in the province’s First Engineering District, was in the 2025 NEP.
The project was paid in full last June 30 and was awarded to contractor SYMS Construction Trading.
Also being questioned is the P96.4 million rehabilitation of river protection structure project in Bulusan, Calumpit, Bulacan implemented by the DPWH First District Engineering Office and St. Timothy Construction Corporation in 2022.
The third one is the P77.19 million construction of flood mitigation structures in Barangay Frances, which was again implemented by the DPWH First District Engineering Office and Wawao Builders in 2023.
The project has also reportedly already shown signs of concrete deterioration, with exposed loose cables and wires.
CAMPAIGN CONTRIBUTORS
Commission on Elections (Comelec) Chairman George Garcia said three of 31 contractors that may have illegally donated to the campaign of candidates during the 2022 elections are among 15 contractors of flood control projects earlier tagged by the.
“At first glance, I believe I saw three contractors,” said Garcia. “We saw contractors that are among those 15 mentioned by the President.”
He refused to disclose the names of the three, saying they are still in the initial stage of their probe.
Garcia said the Comelec has yet to confirm if the three contractors have existing projects with the government at the time of their campaign donations.
Under the Omnibus Election Code, “no contribution for purposes of partisan political activity shall be made directly or indirectly by a natural and juridical persons, who hold contracts or sub-contracts to supply the government or any of its divisions, subdivisions, or instrumentalities, with goods or services, or to perform construction or other works”.
Violation of the said provision is tantamount to committing an election offense.
An election offense carries the penalty of one to six years imprisonment, disqualification to hold public office, and deprivation of the right of suffrage.
‘PREPOSTEROUS’
Palace Press Officer Claire Castro yesterday branded as “preposterous” the remarks of Vice President Sara Duterte that investigations on the anomalous flood control projects ordered by the President is just for show and could have been resolved in a day if he was really serious in addressing corruption.
“They can finish the investigations in one day? That is absolutely preposterous!,” she said in mixed Filipino and English.
“The President does not conduct an investigation in a `tokhang’ way. The President respects due process. The President respects human rights, so everything goes through a process,’’ she added.
Castro said if it was true that the investigations can be done in a day, Duterte should have recommended it to her father, former president Rodrigo Duterte who said in the past that “ghost projects” were rampant in the DPWH.
She presented a printed copy of a news clipping, published on Nov. 6, 2020, titled “Duterte says ghost’ projects rampant in DPWH.”
“Was there a DPWH secretary fired during his time? So again, this investigation is for the people, not for politics. The President is doing this even if it affects his administration,” she said. – With Wendell Vigilia, Gerard Naval and Jocelyn Reyes
