INSATIABLE GREED HAS crept into the system of the Department of Public Works and Highways and its select contractors in implementing not just ghost and substandard flood control projects but also farm to market roads (FMR) and substandard school buildings.
This comes as Sen. Sherwin Gatchalian exposed on Wednesday the “extremely overpriced” FMRs by up to 70 percent amounting to P10 billion programmed for calendar years covering 2023 and 2024.
One project, he said, cost 23 times more than the standard price set by DPWH while others saw markups of 70 percent, further ballooning the project cost. FMRs are planned by the Department of Agriculture and passed on to the DPWH for design and execution.
The Senate finance committee, chaired by Gatchalian said these were projects taken from the P176.7 billion budget of the DA.
DA Secretary Francisco Tiu Laurel Jr. said the DPWH set a P15,000 per meter standard cost for FMRs, but this could go as low as P10,000 if the “30 percent” markup was trimmed.
Gatchalian noted that many FMRs funded under the General Appropriations Act (GAA) under 2024 Fiscal Year (FY) cost P30,000 per meter, or twice that of the P15,000 benchmark set by the DPWH.
ZALDY CO’S BAILIWICK
Bicol region topped the list of FMR projects that had a “cost overshoot,” as Gatchalian explained.
The region’s 80 projects could have cost only P520 million but went up to P1.7 billion because of the 68-percent markup amounting to P1.18 billion, said a report of the Inquirer.
This was followed by Eastern Visayas with 33 projects that were allocated P791 million with a 70 percent or P555-million cost overshoot. This meant that the projects should have cost only P236 million without the markups.
The overpriced FMR project in Albay was handled by Hi-Tone Construction and Development Corp., co-founded by Christopher Co, brother of former Ako Bicol Rep. Zaldy Co.
Zaldy Co, chaired the powerful committee on appropriations of the House of Representatives from July 2022 to January 2025, but resigned from his post to avoid investigations on flood control projects and budget insertions.
The concreting of FMRs from Barangay Kidaco to Barangay San Roque in Daraga, Albay, was allocated a P46-million budget in the 2024 GAA and had a length of only 0.37 kilometers but cost P124,324.32 per meter — over eight times the standard P15,000.
Other areas that were flagged with extremely overpriced projects under the 2024 GAA were Camarines Sur (P263,157.89 per meter), Bulacan (P193,548.39) and Eastern Samar (P169,902.91).
“For me, this is an obvious sign of corruption,” Gatchalian said.
Agriculture Secretary Francisco Tiu Laurel Jr. had vowed to look into the matter.
ROMUALDEZ FORTRESS
For Eastern Visayas, Barangay San Roque in Tacloban City topped the list of extremely overpriced FMRs with an ongoing road concreting.
The 2024 GAA allocated P100 million for the project, with an actual length of 0.287 kilometers, putting its cost per meter at P348,432.06 — or 23 times more than the P15,000 DPWH standard price.
In addition, the project’s contractor could not be found in the DPWH Civil Works Contracts Database.
“This is just extremely, extremely, extremely overpriced,” Gatchalian said.
Gatchalian asked Laurel if they have “not detected this extreme overpricing? If the P15,000 [cost per meter] is already overpriced in your opinion, this one is P348,000 per meter.”
Laurel said he was shocked by such figures but that the question could be better answered by the project implementer, the DPWH.
Eastern Visayas, particularly Tacloban, is under former Speaker Martin Romualdez.
TOP FMR CONTRACTORS
Gatchalian said the three contractors who bagged the most number of FMR projects were also among the top 15 firms list reported last August by President Marcos that secured the biggest amount of flood control projects nationwide.
These three were EGB Construction Corp. (with P242.1 million FmR for 2024 or the second highest in Gatchalian’s list), Hi-Tone (the third biggest at P221.9 million) and Road Edge Trading & Development Services (with P98 million).
The top contractor for FMRs in 2024 was GCI Construction and Development Corp. with P288.5 million.
Gatchalian said since the Bicol region had the most number of overpriced FMRs with Hi Tone cornering the third biggest road contracts, he believes this is not coincidental as “Zaldy Co was behind the company that got the third largest number of contracts.”
TULFO PRESIDES BRC
Following Sen Panfilo Lacson’s resignation as blue ribbon committee chairman, its vice chairman Sen. Erwin Tulfo, will preside over the committee hearings to ensure continuity in the investigations into the flood control projects and fund scandals. Though he is on official travel, he had been informed of his new appointment by Senate President Tito Sotto.
He however clarified that he’d be on board until after a permanent committee chairman shall have been named.
Lacson gave up committee chairmanship amid controversies and negativities by peers in the Senate.
“Some senators publicly and secretly pursue the narrative that I am zeroing in on several of my colleagues while purportedly protecting those members of the Lower House perceived to be the principal actors in the budget anomalies related to the substandard and ghost flood control projects,” said Lacson, as he denied such claims.
Sotto previously offered the BRC to Sens. JV Ejercito, Risa Hontiveros, Pia Cayetano, Raffy Tulfo and Francis Pangilinan, who all declined so they could focus in their respective committees.
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