Trade Secretary Cristina Roque has pledged to clean up the Philippine Contractors Accreditation Board (PCAB) following revelations by Senator Panfilo Lacson of alleged extortion within the agency.

PCAB, an implementing board of the Construction Industry Authority of the Philippines (CIAP) under the Department of Trade and Industry, accredits contractors required to bid for government projects.

Senator Lacson on Sunday disclosed that some contractors were allegedly threatened with non-renewal of their licenses if they failed to pay bribes of up to P1 million.

“For the PCAB, we will do a cleanup. We cannot allow that extortion to happen there,” Roque said in an interview on the sidelines of the launch of the “Turismo Asenso Loan Program” at the Marriott Hotel in Pasay City on Monday.

Roque emphasized the importance of PCAB in ensuring contractors’ eligibility for government projects. “One of the requirements for contractors is the PCAB license. But that’s not the main requirement to be able to get a project from the Department of Public Works and Highways. And since there were names that were involved in the PCAB, then we will do an investigation and we will do a cleanup at PCAB,” she said.

Lacson cited reports of extortion cases, including one contractor allegedly forced to pay P7 million for first-time accreditation. He hopes affected contractors will cooperate with ongoing investigations.

During his privilege speech on substandard and ghost flood control projects on 20 August, Lacson claimed that some contractors paid as much as P2 million to secure accreditation, a practice he called “accreditation for sale.”

While PCAB has denied the allegations, Lacson said the board must still explain how some contractors obtained accreditation after making such payments.

Over the weekend, Lacson revealed a conflict of interest involving PCAB board members Engineers Erni Baggao and Arthur Escalante, who allegedly issued licenses while owning construction firms that secured government contracts. Lacson criticized Escalante’s justification that the PCAB law from the 1960s allows board members to be contractors.

“When you enter government service, particularly a regulatory body, and you have a conflict of interest due to your business or practice, you should divest from your business within 30 days,” Lacson said, citing Sec. 9 of Republic Act 6713, the Code of Conduct and Ethical Standards for Public Officials.