, President Ferdinand){kind=link}
AMIDST THE ONGOING probe on corruption in flood control projects of the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH), President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. (PBBM) urged local government chief executives to emulate Pasig City Mayor Victor Maria Regis Sotto or Vico Sotto in reporting graft-ridden public works projects in their localities.
In a media briefing, Palace Press Officer Claire Castro said that President Ferdinand Marcos finds it rather necessary to identify graft-tainted goverment projects — a goal that may only be possible with public cooperation.
The chief executive recently revealed that ₱100 billion, or 18 percent of the entire ₱545-billion budget for flood mitigation projects undertaken by the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) from July 2022 to May 2025, was awarded to only 15 out of 2,409 accredited contractors.
Palace Press Officer Claire Castro said that President Ferdinand Marcos finds it rather necessary to identify graft-tainted goverment projects — a goal that may only be possible with public cooperation.
DISTURBING
The President called this initial finding “disturbing,” though he did not make any accusations about possible anomalies by the private contractors mentioned in the presentation where he named the 15 private contractors that cornered most projects of the DPWH.
Then shortly after the President’s briefing, Sotto pointed out in a Facebook post that two of the 15 contractors identified by the President —Alpha & Omega Gen. Contractor & Development Corp. and St. Timothy Construction Corp.— were owned by the Discaya family whose matriarch, Cezarah Rowena “Sarah” Discaya, ran against him in the recently concluded midterm election last May 12.
Sotto likewise listed seven more contractor firms owned by the Discaya, namely Saint Gerrard Construction, Elite General Contractor and Development Corporation, St. Matthew General Contractor & Development, Great Pacific Builders and General Contractor, YPR General Contractor and Construction Supply, Amethyst Horizon Builders and General Contractor & Development Corp., and Way Maker OPC.
SUSPENDED
It maybe recalled that ten years ago in August, the DPWH suspended St. Gerrard from participating in any public bidding for a year after it submitted a “spurious” tax clearance certificate.
Five years after, the company was again blacklisted by the DPWH in January 2020 over delays in the construction of school buildings in Indang, Cavite.
In naming the Discaya-owned construction firms as having doubtful track records, Sotto committed that the Pasig City government would send to the President all the information in its possession on government projects that are suspected to be riddled with irregularities.
FLAGGED CONTRACTORS
In the Visayas region, Iloilo City mayor Raisa Maria Lourdes Treñas-Chu likewise flagged four of the DPWH flood control projects amounting to a total of ₱575 million contracted to the Discaya-owned firms, particularly St. Timothy and Alpha & Omega.
“These projects are not only nonfunctional, some have even worsened flooding, while others appear to be practically non-existent,” Treñas posted in her Facebook account.
The lady mayor also said the projects did not go through proper consultation and were constructed without permits from the city government. She added that the construction were also never reviewed by experts and “allegedly done in haste, sometimes in the middle of the night.”