UNDERMANNED COMMISSION ON Audit (COA) after finding itself in a fix from one of its commissioners, drafted measures and collaborated with other agencies to strengthen its regulatory powers to prevent a repeat of graft and corruption on account of its overworked audit staff.
This was the commitment made by COA chair Gamaliel Cordoba amid findings that the contract for a new COA building at its Quezon City headquarters was awarded to a contractor with ties — if not directly linked – to the wife of Commissioner Mario Lipana, who has gone abroad “on medical leave” August 1.
Records reviewed by the Right to Know, Right Now (R2KRN) coalition showed that the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) awarded in 2021 the P959-million contract for the new COA building in Quezon City to the joint venture of R.U. Aquino Construction and Development Corp. and Le Bron Construction.
Le Bron Construction, a sole proprietorship, is the main joint venture (JV) partner of Olympus Mining and Builders Group Phils. Corp., a construction company headed by the commissioner’s wife Marilou Laurio-Lipana.
A review of Olympus’ DPWH contracts from 2023 to 2025 showed that it entered into JVs with Le Bron in nine out of 22 contracts during that period, said a recent Inquirer report.
Le Bron’s authorized managing officer, Moises Nicdao, is also among the incorporators of another firm, Iron Ore, Gold and Vanadium Resources Inc. (IOGVRP), where Mrs. Lipana, using her maiden name Marilou G. Laurio, was listed as president based on an offshore mining project scoping document in 2021.
Ramon Aris Lipana is also listed as IOGVRP incorporator based on Securities and Exchange Commission records, though his connection to Commissioner Lipana remains unclear.
Le Bron holds a substantial public works portfolio of 235 DPWH contracts across Luzon and the Visayas from 2016 to 2025 worth a total of P15 billion, based on the DPWH infrastructure website.
BUSINESS AS USUAL
R2KRN noted that the firm was blacklisted from July 31, 2017 to July 7, 2018, but was still awarded 21 contracts worth P514.3 million between 2017 and 2018.
“There is little question [that] the Lipanas and Nicdao have ties that they have parlayed into a web of contracts across multiple types of infrastructure projects and supplies of various goods and services, usually as joint-venture partners,” R2KRN said.
R2KRN is a network of advocates from the academe, labor sector, the youth, civil society organization and media campaigning for the passage of the Freedom of Information (FOI) law and the promotion of FOI practice in the country.
CONFLICT OF INTEREST
Commissioner Lipana was not yet part of COA when the new COA building contract was awarded, R2KRN noted but that he was then a senior COA officer.
Before his appointment as commissioner, Lipana headed the COA regional office in Calabarzon (Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, Rizal, Quezon or Region IV-A) and concurrently led the Intelligence and Confidential Fund Audit Office, which reviews the liquidation and use of confidential and intelligence funds by national and local agencies.
Republic Act 6713, or the Code of Conduct and Ethical Standards for Public Officials and Employees, requires divestment upon assumption of office and forbids the transfer of interest to spouses and relatives within the fourth degree of consanguinity.
“Viewed against these legal standards, the circumstances surrounding Commissioner Lipana and his wife raise serious questions of conflict of interest,” Inquirer cited the R2KRN report written by Nepomuceno Malaluan, Malou Mangahas and Jenina Joy Chavez.
Even if Commissioner Lipana had no role in auditing DPWH projects involving his wife’s company, R2KRN insists that it “still stands that the new headquarters of the nation’s audit institution was awarded to a contractor that had a business association with the family of one of its senior officials.This betrays the deeper institutional entanglements that now confront COA,” it said.
“Indeed, while a new home for the country’s supreme audit institution was being built, the very foundations of its independence were being eaten away like wood by termites from within.”
LONGER PARTNERSHIP
The Le Bron-Olympus partnership extended far beyond the COA compound, the coalition added.
From 2016 to 2025, Olympus bagged P1.89 billion worth of infrastructure projects from the DPWH—mostly flood control structures and access roads in Bulacan—including nine JVs with Le Bron Construction.
Many of these projects fell under Bulacan’s first district engineering office, whose former officials Henry Alcantara and Brice Ericson Hernandez have admitted before the Senate blue ribbon committee to kickbacks, bid rigging, and substandard and “ghost” projects.
Alcantara told the Senate on September 23 that Commissioner Lipana personally requested a list of flood control projects for Bulacan and later managed to insert P500 million worth of these into the 2023 unprogrammed appropriations, followed by P400 million in 2024 and another P500 million in 2025.
Former DPWH Undersecretary Roberto Bernardo confirmed in an affidavit that Lipana had sought introductions to Bulacan DPWH officials.
The Office of the Ombudsman earlier confirmed that it has started conducting a fact-finding investigation into Commissioner Lipana since these allegations surfaced.
IMPEACHABLE OFFENSE
Meanwhile, Sen. Francis Pangilinan expressed belief that such an act could constitute an impeachable offense for Lipana, who was appointed by former President Rodrigo Duterte in 2022 with a term expiring in 2027.
R2RKN challenged the COA to “to apply its own ethical and administrative standards impartially. Whether through formal inquiry, recusal, or administrative review, its leadership and personnel must address questions that reach deeply into its own credibility as the nation’s guardian of fiscal integrity.”
The coalition asked the DPWH to review the contracts involving Olympus and its JVs and related contractors, and for Congress to exercise its exclusive authority to initiate impeachment proceedings if the facts establish ethical or constitutional violations.
It also asked the Independent Commission for Infrastructure to look into the connection between Lipana, COA, Olympus and Le Bron, especially since one of the contracts involved one of COA’s own infrastructure.
SWEEPING REFORMS
COA chair Cordoba told the Senate Finance panel that they have launched internal investigations and sweeping reforms to strengthen transparency and restore public trust.
Cordoba confirmed that the agency is now investigating its own auditors for possible negligence or complicity in the irregularities flagged in several DPWH projects.
The results of the probes are being turned over to COA’s Internal Affairs Office for possible sanctions. In some cases, findings have already led to the suspension of DPWH engineers “implicated in ghost or non-existent projects” through the Office of the Ombudsman.
He cited the DPWH Bulacan First District Engineering Office as a key focus of the probe, where resident auditors handled 11 municipalities and three cities—an extensive coverage that may have led to oversight gaps.
“We are looking at every layer of accountability. Those who failed to act or allowed wrongdoing to happen will be held responsible,” Cordoba said.
Periodic reshuffles to avoid familiarity with the agencies they monitor will also be undertaken and COA officials and personnel will be required to declare any personal or financial interests tied to their assignments to prevent conflicts of interest.
“We recognize the limitations in manpower, but we are instituting stronger oversight systems. Our fraud auditors will conduct random checks to ensure resident auditors are doing their jobs,” he said.
MANDATORY GEOTAGGING
Among the most significant changes: mandatory geotagging for all infrastructure projects implemented by national agencies, state corporations, and local governments.
COA Commissioner Douglas Michael Mallillin said the audit body is preparing a memorandum circular requiring the use of geotagging for all infrastructure projects, not only those under DPWH but also the National Irrigation Administration (NIA), Department of Health (DOH), government-owned and controlled corporations (GOCCs), and local government units (LGUs).
“Alam natin na ang DPWH, NIA, DOH, and not only national agencies pati mga GOCC, pati mga LGU po ay may infrastructure projects,” Mallillin said.
The move follows earlier COA investigations into several DPWH projects in Bulacan, where auditors discovered that some contractors had falsified geotags—using actual project photos but linking them to incorrect locations. “We will pursue criminal charges against anyone found tampering with geotags or falsifying documentation,” Mallillin warned.
COA will now use satellite-based verification for greater accuracy and deploy fraud auditors to conduct surprise inspections.
To prevent another corruption scandal COA is eyeing geotagging and pre-audits in the implementation of infrastructure projects and system integration with departments on infrastructure in the country.
“We are also discussing system integration with the departments involved in infrastructure. This means that the systems of DPWH, PCAB, PhilGEPS, SEC, and BIR will be unified to function as a single portal.”
“If we establish this portal, all agencies will be able to verify with the SEC and BIR the contracts, such as their NFCC (Net Financial Contracting Capacity) and LCC (Legal and Contracting Capacity), so everything will align).”
Lastly, he disclosed that COA is also looking at a pre-audit of projects by examining government transactions before funds are disbursed to ensure that projects will not be hounded by irregularities.
COA recently submitted four new Fraud Audit Reports (FARs) to the Independent Commission for Infrastructure (ICI), uncovering more ghost and mismatched flood-control projects in DPWH Bulacan’s 1st District Engineering Office (DEO). The latest batch amounting to P360 million in total — covers projects implemented by M3 Konstract Corp., SYMS Construction and Trading, and Amethyst Horizon Builders and General Contractor and Development Corp.