EXPOSÉS on the flood of anomalous flood control projects have triggered massive public anger and rage against contractors, some politicians, and personnel of the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH).
In the last few weeks, the public discourse, reportage, and congressional inquiry on ghost and substandard projects have focused on individual contracts and contractors, and the shameless display of wealth by the malefactors and their kin. Still missing in the public discourse and congressional inquiry, however, are issues regarding the conglomerates of contractors, the ties that bind them to some legislators and local officials, and the seemingly syndicated corruption across agencies.
Portraying DPWH as corrupt and labeling all its personnel as “crooks” would also probably be unfair. DPWH has slightly more than 20,000 regular personnel, and another 20,000 job-order, contract-of-service, and roadside workers. It has about two dozen undersecretaries and assistant secretaries, 17 regional offices and more regional district offices with the total 200 district engineering offices spread among them.
By all accounts, the circle of corruption over the last two decades has involved many more players, and festers in many more agencies beyond DPWH. Calling out, suspending, and blacklisting bad contractors of ghost and irregular projects may even be too little, too late now. The issues are certain to recur because a veritable syndicate of malefactors everywhere is likely to be spared blame, and the major pivot and pushers of corruption, likely to escape prosecution.
Presidents, politicians, contractors
Intensive research, data analytics, paper-trail work on contracts and corporate records, interviews with former and current government officials and contractors, and review of relevant laws by the Right to Know Right Now Coalition (R2KRN) reveal that:
Projects riddled with kickbacks have been funded largely by the billions of pesos in sneaky insertions in the General Appropriations Acts (GAA) that the House of Representatives and the Senate had pushed starting 2010, and which the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) had allowed, eyes wide open. Former Presidents Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, Benigno S. Aquino III, and Rodrigo Duterte, and now President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. had signed into law these GAA fattened with loads of insertions.
Marcos Jr.’s three immediate predecessors had triggered public anger and protest actions for misuse and abuse of public funds, irregular public contracts, and distribution of largesse to political allies.
During Duterte’s watch, from 2016 to 2017, the then top 10 apparently favored contractors cornered an aggregate PhP68.5 billion or 14 percent of the PhP500.7-billion total projects with notices to proceed issued by DPWH from July 2016 to December 2017.
PCIJ at the time reported that “three of the top 10 contractors had been suspended or blacklisted, including one for submitting fake tax clearance certificates. One had its corporate registration revoked. The officers of four others are facing trial for alleged graft.” Too, “two have direct connections to politicians, some others had sealed deals via financial favors exchanged with certain politicians. All share a record of incomplete or bad projects, and unsatisfactory ratings in some project performance evaluations.”
Seven of the top 10 contractors under Duterte had also ranked among the top 10 contractors awarded billion-peso contracts by Arroyo. Four of those top 10 remain top contractors to this day, even as they rub elbows with a few fresh additions that are companies owned or controlled by politicians recently swept to power in Congress.
Before she bowed out of the presidency, Arroyo had authorized the midnight disbursement to DPWH of PhP30 billion from the PhP69.7 billion congressional insertions she had approved. A third of the amount or PhP10 billion was disbursed “to the last peso” on her last day in office, 30 June 2010, for road repairs, dredgings, bridges, and schools that apparently did not go undergo bidding.
During the time of Benigno S. Aquino III, a pork barrel scam (PDAF) and the refocusing of unexpended public funds to what was called the Disbursement Acceleration Program sparked a million-people march against corruption.
More players, more data
- Apart from DPWH, some personnel in other government agencies should be held to account for negligence, incompetence, collusion, and corruption in project procurement and implementation, including those from DBM, Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR), Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), Commission on Audit (COA), and the procuring entities.
- The https://sumbongsapangulo dashboard, a commendable seminal effort at transparency, offers incomplete and misleading data on the biggest winners of the biggest contracts, by year, value, and number. It ignored the fact of dozens of joint-venture (JV) and multiyear contract authority (MYCA) projects that repeat the names of some of the same contractors, and add more monies to their total project uptake.
- DPWH has more substantial and real-time data that it has not disclosed to the people regarding contract slippages, contractors with poor and unsatisfactory performance, cases of district engineers transferred or put on floating status for dodging pressure from politicians, and evidence of collusion among some contractors and DPWH personnel in engineering, finance, senior management, and resident auditors.
The https://sumbongsapangulo offers data on just 9,855 flood-control projects awarded to reportedly about 2,409 unclustered contractors, with a composite value of PhP545.64 billion in taxpayers’ money, from July 2022 to May 2025.
The dashboard gives the people just a slice of all other infrastructure projects worth over trillions of pesos similarly marked with irregularities, notably roads and bridges, construction of school buildings, and foreign-assisted projects.
Accounting for the JV contracts that repeat the names of some of the same contractors, the dashboard has clustered data on only 1,765 contractors. (“Clustered” refers to individual and JV contracts.)
By comparison, over 30,000 contractors are registered with DPWH for various infrastructure projects. The 1,765 contractors enrolled in the sumbongsapangulo dashboard make up slightly under six percent of the total. Some contractors have averred that the current controversy has affected their operations, transactions with DPWH, and ability to pay their workers’ on time.
The ranking of the top 15 contractors by value of contracts that President Marcos Jr. has exposed is also misleading. It does not reflect what media years ago had pointed to: the ties that bind several contractors owned and controlled by the same families, or are part of groups of companies that these families own and control.
Big guns spared scrutiny
When clustered, the picture that emerges is a new ranking of contractors known and called in the industry by the eponym “The Triad” or the biggest, usual winners of big and multiple construction projects.
Yet more than a month since President Marcos Jr. railed against anomalous flood-control projects, only the Discaya conglomerate of nine construction companies has been named and shamed in official statements, congressional inquiry, and social-media posts.
Other groups of contractors allegedly closely associated with Speaker Martin Romualdez and other politicians have been shielded from scrutiny in the meantime.
They include the Sunwest Group of companies linked to Ako Bicol Rep. Elizaldy Co, and the firms associated with the Rep. Edwin L. Gardiola of the Construction Workers Solidarity (CWS) party-list group.
In 2022, 2023, and 2024, the General Appropriations Act (GAA) passed fattened with congressional insertions by the billions, under the watch of Co as chairman of the all-powerful Committee on Appropriations, from July 2022 to January 2025. For undisclosed reasons, Co was replaced as committee chair on motion of the President’s son and Majority Floorleader Sandro Marcos, with approval of Speaker Romualdez.
Elected as CWS party-list representative in 2022 and re-elected in 2025, Gardiola is currently vice chairperson of the committees on Energy and on Southern Tagalog Development, and a member for the majority of the committees on Local Government and on Housing and Urban Development.
Rep. Romeo S. Momo Sr. now chairs the Committee on Public Works and Highways, which deals with “all matters directly and principally relating to the planning, construction, maintenance, improvement and repair of public infrastructure inclusive of buildings, highways, bridges, roads, parks, shrines, monuments and other public edifices of historic interest, drainage, and flood control and protection; water utilities; and utilization of waters of the public domain.”
Committees with potential links to contracts and revenue-rich sectors or industry draw dozens to 100 plus members, while the committees on poverty alleviation, rural development, senior citizens, veterans affairs, and public information have only seven to 15 members each.
Momo had served as DPWH undersecretary from 2010 to 2017. His vice chairpersons in the 87-member committee include those from families or companies in the construction sector, including Duterte-era DPWH secretary Roger G. Mercado; Pampanga Rep. Alyssa Michaela ‘Mica’ Mercado Gonzales-Briones who had worked as treasurer and chief financial officer of her family’s AD Gonzales Jr. Construction & Trading Co., Inc.; and Bulacan Rep. Agustina Dominique ‘Ditse Tina’ Pancho who is married to Gavini (Apol) Pancho, the family behind the C.M. Pancho Construction, Inc. or CMPCI.
Midnight insertions
In 2009, the World Bank debarred C.M. Pancho Construction and several other Filipino and Chinese firms for four years after its Integrity Vice Presidency (INT) found evidence of a major cartel of construction companies engaged in bid-rigging for the bank-funded National Roads Improvement Project.
Until the last day of her presidency, Gloria Arroyo had blessed her favored politicians and contractors with her multibillion- peso insertions. Rogelio ‘Babes’ Singson, then incoming DPWH secretary of President Benigno S. Aquino III, told media that on 30 June 2010, Arroyo disbursed through the DPWH PhP10.6 billion for the pet projects and PhP3.9 billion to augment the pork barrel allotments of her allies in Congress.
A Philippine Daily Inquirer report said that Singson disclosed the names of the legislators in Congress by 2010 who were the biggest recipients of Arroyo’s “midnight” spending spree thus:
- “Former and incumbent Representatives Ferdinand Martin Romualdez of Leyte’s first district (PhP735 million), Exequiel Javier of Antique (PhP636 million), Alfrancis Bichara of Albay’s second district (PhP633 million), Elandro Jesus Madrona of Romblon (PhP609 million), Glenn Chong of Biliran (PhP570 million), Proceso Alcala of Quezon’s second district (PhP560 million), Aurelio M. Gonzales Jr. of Pampanga’s third district and Arroyo’s hometown (PhP502.5 million), Mark Mendoza of Batangas’s fourth district (PhP412 million), Edcel Lagman of Albay’s first district (PhP322.7 million), Carlos Padilla of Nueva Vizcaya (PhP300 million), Diosdado Macapagal Arroyo of Camarines Sur’s first district (PhP268 million);
- “Marc Douglas Cagas of Davao del Sur (PhP260 million), Lorenzo Tañada III of Quezon’s fourth district (PhP220 million), Carmen Cari of Leyte’s fifth district (PhP210 million), Pedro Romualdo of Camiguin (PhP181 million), Vicente Garcia of Davao City (PhP175 million), Adeline Rodriguez Zaldarriaga of Rizal’s second district (PhP167 million), Reno Lim of Albay’s third district (PhP165 million), Orlando Fua of Siquijor (PhP160 million), Trinidad Apostol of Leyte’s second district (PhP152.5 million), Arthur Pingoy Jr. of South Cotabato (PhP150 million), Edwin Uy of Isabela (PhP147 million), Maria Evita R. Arago of Laguna’s third district (PhP130 million), Neptali Gonzales of Mandaluyong City (PhP120 million), Victoria Reyes of Batangas’s third district (PhP120 million), Danilo Suarez of Quezon’s third district (PhP120 million), Thelma Almario of Davao Oriental (PhP107 million), and Prospero Nograles (PhP83.5 million).”
Multiple purses now
Why has so much taxpayers’ money been allotted for flood control and other infrastructure projects under various administrations? What used to be called pork barrel, Priority Development Assistance Fund, and congressional initiatives allocation, now comes down to one magic word: insertions.
A comparison of the National Expenditure Program (NEP) submitted by the President and the GAA passed by both chambers and the bicam of Congress show padding of 14.5 to 24 percent year on year since 2022. This had happened with the concurrence of DBM, and with the GAA for the last three years signed into law by the President.
From 2022 to this year, Congress has inflated the DPWH budget through insertions by PhP99.6 billion in 2022; PhP174.7 billion in 2023; and PhP174.591 billion in 2024.
In budget deliberations, the NEP is expected to undergo changes based on public hearings. Even CSOs engage the budget process to push for reallocation within the NEP/Executives budget. The greater vulnerability arises when the changes are done in closed processes — in this case, at the bicam, or even in what was called by Navotas Rep. Toby Tiangco as the “small committee.”
Many modes of insertions have emerged and distorted the national budget since 2022. So many purses had been opened, apart from the multiple ayuda accounts, for legislators to insinuate their projects into the DPWH.
Table below shows how certain program items in the DPWH budget had been reduced by the billions, in contrast to significantly marked increases for Asset Preservation, Convergence and Special Support Program, and Flood Management — the purses that had been opened and fattened to accommodate congressional insertions.
How has the DPWH budget been split among expenditure item categories — namely Personnel Services (PS), Maintenance and Other Operating Expenses (MOOE), and Capital Outlay (CO) — in the last three years? According to the National Expenditure Program, combining the Central Office and Regional Office Allocation, per year, the data that emerge are:
Clusters, by value, volume
There are interesting details that can be gleaned from the President’s list, however. For instance, the top 18 contractors in the list had cornered multi-billion pesos in some ghost or bad contracts, or an aggregate value of PhP100.38 billion. This represents only 18.39 percent of the total PhP545.64 billion total for all projects in sumbongsapangulo.
By cluster, 133 contractors each got multiple contracts altogether worth PhP1 billion. Their combined share in the sumbongsapangulo dashboard: PhP307.65 billion.
A further drilldown of the data showed that there are 1,632 contractors with below PhP1 billion in total projects, for a shared the balance of PhP237.99 billion
Pushed down further, sumbongsapangulo shows that 85 percent or 1,502 contractors with PhP500 million in contracts portfolio shared just a fourth or PhP143.33 billion of the total value of all the 1,765 contracts.
At least 641 projects, with values ranging from PhP50 million to PhP99 million each, were cornered by1,060 contractors. The composite value of these contracts: PhP34.2 billion.
The President’s data dashboard shows that the biggest contracts were worth PhP289.5 million, and the smallest, PhP1.15 million for a drainage project in Camarines Sur.
Notably, some of the top contractors ran even after small-value contracts by the dozen, and in nearly all the regions of the country.
Flood Control Projects By Number of Contractors and Projects, and Aggregate Value of Contracts, July 2022 to May 2025
Source: https://sumbongsapangulo
Flood Control Projects, By Value, Number, and Year Awarded
Source: https://sumbongsapangulo
Source: https://sumbongsapangulo
Source: https://sumbongsapangulo
Source: https://sumbongsapangulo
Compared to DPWH’s data, sumbongsapangulo’s are incomplete at best.
The DPWH maintains what it calls “Contract Profiles” and can readily generate “Physical Status Report” on whichever contracts as of current date under its Contract Management Application. R2KRN has precisely filed a Freedom of Information request for this, but was rejected on first round. An urgent appeal for reconsideration sent by R2KRN has reportedly been approved.
We can all be served better if the public had more access to information maintained by DPWH, and more so if the public were equipped with enough understanding about what all that data mean.
Robust, specific, timely, and important data are enrolled in the DPWH’s PCMA dashboard, including the following details per project that sumbongsapangulo does not have yet. The data fields in the PCMA’s dashboard follow:
CONTRACT ID / CONTRACT NAME
- CONTRACT APPROVAL DATE
- NTP or Notice to Proceed (DATE PREPARED)
- CONTRACT EFFECTIVITY DATE
- ACTUAL START DATE
- ORIGINAL CONTRACT EXPIRY DATE
- CONTRACT EXPIRY DATE
- ORIGINAL CONTRACT DURATION (CD)
- CONTRACT DURATION (CD)
- DATE OF COMPLETION
- CONTRACTOR
- PROJECT ENGINEER
- DEO (District Engineering Office)
- IMPLEMENTING OFFICE
- IMPLEMENTATION MODE
- TOTAL ALLOTTED AMOUNT
- ABC (Authorized Budget for Contract)
- ORIGINAL CONTRACT COST
- CONTRACT COST
% PHYSICAL
- PLANNED
- REVISED
- ACTUAL
- SLIPPAGE
REMARKS
PHYSICAL TARGET
CAUSES OF DELAY
PROJECT COMPONENT
ID / DESCRIPTION
- Planned
- Revised
- Cumulative Actual Output
Unit of Measure
Detail
Date Reported
Truth be told, the President’s seminal attempt at transparency has only raised unbridled expectations that there would be more disclosures of how more infrastructure projects worth trillions of pesos have been misused, abused, wasted, or simply pocketed by contractors and politicians, not least of them his own allies and kin.
The optics and fireworks may feed the anger for some time. But real reforms, true transparency, and genuine accountability to slay corruption — these are the goals, and the endgame, that the people need and expect. — Right to Know Right Now Coalition, 5 September 2025
Download Report No.1 here: A circle of corruption Insertions, ghost, bad projects: Who come with clean hands?
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