NEWS

By Dexter Cabalza | Philippine Daily Inquirer | August 13, 2025

DPWH Sec. Manuel Bonoan.

MANILA, Philippines — Unless Congress passes a law prohibiting private contractors affiliated with lawmakers and other government officials, the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) cannot stop these firms from participating in the bidding of public infrastructure projects.

DPWH Secretary Manuel Bonoan admitted it is not in the purview of the agency to look into the personalities behind the contractors that want to deal with the government, despite a possible conflict of interest.

This was after reports revealed a modus operandi apparently involving members of the House of Representatives or their relatives moonlighting as contractors, may have been adding to overpriced or substandard construction, or both, of flood control and other infrastructure projects.

In an interview on ANC on Wednesday, he said all of the companies were able to participate in the bidding of government projects because they obtained a license from the Philippine Contractors Accreditation Board (PCAB).

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Under Republic Act No. 4566, as amended by Presidential Decree No. 1746, no contractor shall engage in the business of contracting without first having secured a PCAB license to conduct business.

PCAB is one of the implementing boards in the Construction Industry Authority of the Philippines, which is under the Department of Trade and Industry.

“Once they (private construction firms) have that PCAB license, and as long as they have complete documentation and pre-qualification documents, then they can participate in the bidding process,” Bonoan explained.

`Co-owners or affiliated’

“It’s not part of the criteria to look into the personalities who probably co-own or are affiliated to these companies,” he added.

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Bonoan deferred to the decision of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. on policy changes that may be made at the conclusion of the ongoing investigation of the almost 10,000 flood control projects in the past three years of the administration.

“I think our hands are tied with regard to this kind of situation,” the DPWH chief said.

“Unless there would be an enabling law that would actually prohibit these kinds of qualifications (being involved with politicians) that could be incorporated in the guidelines, then they shall be qualified to participate in the bidding process,” he added.

President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. on Monday revealed that P100 billion, or about 20 percent of the entire P545-billion budget for flood mitigation projects undertaken by his administration from July 2022 to May 2025, was awarded to only 15 out of 2,409 contractors.

Five of these were allegedly connected to former and current politicians.

Albay-based Sunwest Inc. and Hi-Tone Construction & Development Corp. were co-founded by Ako Bicol party-list Rep. Elizaldy Co and his brother, former Ako Bicol lawmaker Christopher Co.

Elizaldy Co, the appropriations chair during the 19th Congress, said in previous interviews that he had already divested himself from Sunwest, now led by Aderma Angelie Alcazar.

Meanwhile, A Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism report in 2023 showed that Escudero received P30 million from Lawrence Lubiano, president of Centerways Construction and Development Inc., during the 2022 elections.

Apart from Escudero and the Cos, also linked to the list is the Discaya family, which owns Alpha & Omega Gen. Contractor & Development Corp. and St. Timothy Construction Corp.

Alpha & Omega is led by Cezarah Rowena Discaya, who used the name Sarah Discaya when she ran and lost against reelectionist Vico Sotto in the Pasig City mayoralty race in the 2025 elections.

Although not part of the 15 companies identified by President Marcos, seven more contractor firms owned by the Discayas are: St. Gerrard Construction; Elite General Contractor and Development Corp.; St. Matthew General Contractor & Development; Great Pacific Builders and General Contractor; YPR General Contractor and Construction Supply; Amethyst Horizon Builders and General Contractor & Dev’t Corp.; and Way Maker OPC.

While it will not participate in the investigation itself, the DPWH has started looking into the status of these flood control projects identified by the President through the list submitted by the agency.

The DPWH’s role would be limited to “field validation and verification” of all the listed flood control projects.

“Our people in the department have been in the field for some time now, gathering all the information that we need to authenticate the projects that we have submitted to the President, because they want to have a status report on all these projects,” Bonoan said.

According to Malacañang, the Regional Project Monitoring Committees shall lead the review of the flood control projects, which are composed of regional directors of the Department of Economy, Planning and Development (DepDev) as chair; regional directors of the Department of Budget and Management as co-chair.

The committees shall also include regional heads of the Department of the Interior and Local Government, the Office of the President – Presidential Management Staff, and representatives from private sector and nongovernment organizations.

The reports of the committees shall then be submitted to the DepDev, which shall then be consolidated before it is submitted to the President.

Source: Philippine Daily Inquirer

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