Twenty Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) officials and five contractors, including Sarah Discaya, were slapped with a corruption complaint before the Office of the Ombudsman over alleged ghost, or non-existent, and substandard flood control projects in Bulacan.

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

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 of St. Timothy Construction Corp., Sally Santos of Syms Construction, Mark Allan Arevalo of Wawao Builders, and Robert Imperio of IM Construction Corp.

The filing of the complaint followed a week-long internal audit by the DPWH into the infrastructure projects implemented by the four construction firms in Bulacan. The agency’s internal audit service (IAS) found that certifications and payments were issued to the contractors despite the flood mitigation projects being 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 were the basis for the release of the public funds to the contractors, despite there having been no actual work done.

“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.

Basis for complaint

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 after 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 owns nine construction firms with her husband, Curlee, admitted that they had given 10 to 25 percent commissions to DPWH officials and congressmen in exchange for government contracts for infrastructure projects, including flood control.

Hernandez admitted receiving payoffs from Santos, with the latter saying the amounts could have totaled approximately P1 billion.

In the parallel probe in the House of Representatives 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.

Many more coming

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

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

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

Aside from the aforementioned, other respondents in the case are: DPWH Bulacan 1st District Engineering Office procurement unit head 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;