20 DPWH officials, Discaya, contractors face graft raps

20 Department of Public Works and Highways officials and five contractors, including Sarah Discaya, are facing a corruption complaint at the Ombudsman in connection with the ghost or non-existent and substandard flood control projects in Bulacan.

The respondents include Bulacan 1st District Engineering Office ex-district engineer Henry Alcantara, ex-assistant engineers Brice Hernandez and Jaypee Mendoza, as well as Discaya and Roma Angeline Rimando (St. Timothy Construction Corp.), Sally Santos (Syms Construction), Mark Allan Arevalo (Wawao Builders), and Robert Imperio (IM Construction Corp.).

DPWH Secretary Vince Dizon personally lodged the complaint early Thursday with the Ombudsman, accusing them of graft, malversation of public funds, and violating the Government Procurement Reform Act (RA 9184).

The filing of the complaint follows a one-week internal audit by the DPWH into the infrastructure projects implemented by the said construction firms in Bulacan. The agency’s Internal Audit Service (IAS) found that certifications and payments were issued to the contractors even though the flood mitigation projects were either incomplete, defective, or not constructed at all, in violation of the law.

The respondents, as alleged in the complaint, conspired to defraud the government by manipulating key documents, such as accomplishment reports, which became an indispensable basis for the release of public funds to the contractors despite the absence of actual work.

“By their concerted acts, the DPWH officials and the contractors did not merely commit administrative lapses; they orchestrated a deliberate scheme whereby false documents were made to stand in place of genuine performance, thereby triggering unlawful disbursements,” the 37-page complaint read.

“They are thus liable as co-principals for graft, falsification, malversation, and related offenses, and are subject to the same statutory penalties as their public counterparts,” it added.

Five flood control projects in Malolos, Hagonoy, Bulakan, and Baliwag formed the basis of the complaint.

The DPWH officials were accused of giving unwarranted benefits to the contractors because Alcantara gave final approval to the supporting and accomplishment reports of the projects in question despite glaring deficiencies, causing undue damage and injury to the government.

“By preparing and/or approving documents for construction projects that were either unfinished or whose declared status did not reflect the actual work done, the DPWH-officials respondents not only were grossly negligent in their duties, they were acting in evident bad faith,” the document read.

At a Senate probe earlier this week, Discaya, who ran nine construction firms with her husband, Curlee, admitted that they give 10 to 25 percent commissions to DPWH officials and congressmen in exchange for government contracts for infrastructure projects, including flood control.

Hernandez, meanwhile, admitted receiving payoffs from Santos, with the latter saying the amount could have reached approximately P1 billion.

In the parallel probe in the House on Tuesday, Hernandez implicated Senators Joel Villanueva and Jinggoy Estrada in the flood control scheme, accusing them of demanding at least 30 percent SOP or kickbacks for every project.

Hernandez said Alcantara was the “chief implementor” who directly coordinated with politicians and personally delivered their kickbacks, for which Alcantara got a three-percent commission for every project.

According to Dizon, this is just the first of a series of complaints to follow.

The DPWH chief explained that they chose graft over plunder because it’s swifter and easier to establish based on the evidence at hand.

Respondents

Aside from the aforementioned, other respondents in the case are:

DPWH Bulacan 1st District Engineering Office Head, Procurement Unit, Benedict Matawaran; Project Engineers Paul Jayson Duya, Merg Jaron Laus, Lemuel Ephraim Roque, Arjay Domasig, John Carlo Rivera, John Benex Francisco; Engineer II FlorJolo Mari Tayao; Budget Unit Head Roberto Roque; Construction Chief John Michael Ramos; Planning and Design Chief Ernesto Galang; Maintenance OIC-Chief Lorenzo Pagtalunan; Quality Assurance Chiefs Norberto Santos and Jaimer Hernandez; Administrative Chief Floralyn Simbulan; Finance Chief Juanito Mendoza; and Cashier II Christina Mae Pineda.

Bulacan had the largest number of flood control projects from July 2022 to May this year, with 668, totaling P44 billion.

At a Senate hearing in August, ex-DPWH Secretary Manuel Bonoan confirmed that Wawao Builders was the contractor of ghost flood control projects in the towns of Calumpit, Malolos, and Hagonoy in Bulacan.

Wawao is among the top 15 firms — alongside those run by Discaya — which were flagged by Marcos, cornering P5.97 billion in contracts for 85 projects in Bulacan alone. The firm accounted for P9 billion worth of contracts nationwide.