Discaya, firms subpoenaed for snubbing House flood probe

Five construction firms, including that of Sarah Discaya, were slapped with a subpoena for snubbing the first day of the investigation of the House infrastructure committee into the anomalies in the P545.64-billion flood control projects.

Discaya was a no-show in the House probe despite attending a parallel investigation in the Senate a day prior. 

Discaya owns the Alpha and Omega General Contractor & Development Corporation and St. Timothy Construction Corporation, which were among the 15 firms that were summoned by the committee to shed light on the allegations of substandard and ghost or non-existent flood control projects across the country. 

These firms are the top 15 contractors, flagged by President Marcos Jr., that bagged P100 billion in flood control contracts. The amount accounts for 20 percent of the P545.64 billion budget allotted for flood control programs from June 2022 to May this year. 

Aside from Discaya, representatives of Royal Crown Monarch Construction and Supplies Corporation, Syms Construction Trading, and Wawao Builders Corporation were also no-shows in the congressional inquiry. 

Wawao Builders general manager Mark Allan Arevalo was also in attendance at the Senate hearing on Monday, but skipped the House probe.

Panel lead chair Terry Ridon ordered to issue a subpoena against the five firms following a motion by his co-chair, Manila Rep. Joel Chua.

Preliminary reviews by Ridon revealed that Syms Construction Trading was the contractor of the P55-million reinforced concrete river wall project in Baliwag, Bulacan, which was inspected by Marcos on 20 August, only to discover it was nonexistent. 

There’s no indication that the project was ever started, despite it being declared “completed” on the DPWH’s records. The riverwall was supposed to be constructed back in February. 

Ridon said that plunder charges must be brought against Syms Constructions at “the soonest time” for surpassing the P50-million threshold.

“We will also take a look at the substandard project of St. Timothy and Wawao Builders in Calumpit, Bulacan, both of which had been inspected by the President, in which the President had found concrete deterioration, with exposed loose cables and wires,” Ridon said.

The two substandard projects, he added, had been built within the last four years.

Wawao Builders was earlier tagged by resigned Public Works and Highways secretary Manuel Bonoan as the contractor of the ghost flood control projects in the towns of Calumpit, Malolos, and Hagonoy in Bulacan.

Wawao reportedly bagged a whopping P5.97 billion in contracts for 85 projects in Bulacan alone. 

Ridon claimed that aside from the “ghost” river wall in Baliwag, the funding for the botched flood control projects, including the deteriorating P380-million dike in San Teodoro, Oriental Mindoro, the P260-million rockshed at Tuba, Benguet, and the botched P96.4-million flood control project by St.Timothy in Calumpit, Bulacan, had originated in the National Expenditure Program and not congressional insertions.