ASEANEWS HEADLINE-CORRUPTION | MANILA: Explain lavish lifestyles, 10 DPWH execs ordered
Public Works Secretary Vince Dizon speaks during a press briefing at Malacañang on September 1, 2025./ The STAR / Ryan Baldemor
DPWH orders several officials to explain substandard projects, lavish lifestyle | ANC
Public Works Secretary Vince Dizon said show-cause orders have been sent to the officials, requiring them to submit written explanations within five days of receipt of the orders.
“We have sent out show-cause orders… There’s a process we have to follow because many of them are civil service employees or officials and there’s a process we have to follow,” Dizon said. “This is the start of the process, and later on, depending on the results of the investigation, appropriate administrative charges against them.”
Asked to explain were Gerard Opulencia, DPWH National Capital Region director; Danilo Villa, DPWH-Region 7 (Central Visayas) regional director, and lawyer Brando Raya, head of the DPWH Region 7 right-of-way acquisition and legal division.
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Explanations are being sought from former DPWH-Region 4-B (Mimaropa region) district engineer Gerald Pacanan, former DPWH Las Piñas-Muntinlupa district engineer Isabelo Baleros, DPWH Pampanga 1st district engineering office (DEO) engineer Almer Miranda, La Union DEO engineer Gil Lorenzo, Quezon City 1st DEO engineer Arturo Gonzales Jr. and Quezon City 2nd DEO engineer Johnny Protesta Jr. for the substandard projects in their respective jurisdictions.
“This is the process laid down by our civil service law so we have to follow it,” Dizon said, referring to the issuance of the show cause orders.
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At the Senate, Blue Ribbon committee chairman Panfilo Lacson said former public works chief Manuel Bonoan cannot claim to have been caught off guard by recent disclosures of corruption in district offices of the DPWH, as he had risen from the ranks before retiring in 2010.
“He retired in 2010, and before that he stayed for so many years so he knew what was happening on the ground,” Lacson told reporters.
“To say that he was unable to monitor can mean two implications – it’s either he was in cahoots or just incompetent,” Lacson, who is also Senate president pro-tempore, said in Filipino.
Bonoan, who was summoned to the Blue Ribbon hearing on Tuesday, denied knowledge of the schemes that sacked Bulacan engineer Brice Hernandez bared before the panel – chief of which was intentionally implementing substandard infrastructure projects from 2019 to 2025.
Lacson argued that a department head cannot distance himself from systemic anomalies in his turf.
“If you’re the head of an agency you should know how to monitor the shenanigans,” he said.
“It’s only now that they’ve been exposed, but it’s been going on for a long time,” he added, referring to anomalous implementation of projects.
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While clarifying that no one has directly linked Bonoan to criminal liability, Lacson underscored the principle of command responsibility may apply.
“In the military, we call it command responsibility – you can be sacked, suspended for command responsibility. In a civilian setup, there’s nothing like that,” he said.
No arrest warrant for Co
Meanwhile, Ako Bicol party-list Rep. Zaldy Co cannot be arrested if he surfaces because there is no warrant for his arrest, National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) Director Jaime
Santiago told reporters yesterday “If we do not hold anything like a warrant of arrest, we can’t do anything about him,” he said. “I know the constitutional right of the accused, so we should respect that.”
Co’s whereabouts remain a mystery. Speaker Faustino Dy III revoked his travel clearance on Sept. 18 and directed him to return in 10 days.
Dy said the House leadership will discuss whether to lodge an ethics complaint against Co if he doesn’t return by Sept. 28.
Co has been described by some as the “missing link” in the flood control scandal, having served as chairman of the House appropriations committee in the 19th Congress.
Bids routinely rigged
Meanwhile, top government contractor Curlee Discaya on Tuesday came forward with a sworn statement alleging that bidding for government flood control projects across the country is routinely rigged, with contractors, politicians and officials of the DPWH colluding to manipulate results.
In a notarized affidavit, Discaya said the practice of pre-arranged bidding is widespread, claiming that projects are often “already sold” to favored contractors even before the formal opening of bids.
He and his wife Sarah set up nine construction firms with different specialties to qualify for government projects.
While only two or three companies would participate at a time, he alleged that the others were asked to join bids merely as “players,” contractors who intentionally lose in exchange for a “share,” or a fee from the winning bidder.
Discaya described a complex scheme involving so-called takers (contractors assured of winning projects through political backing), “negotiators” who arrange which contractors can participate, “royalties” (firms that lend licenses to unqualified builders for a fee) and “players” (legitimate contractors who lose bids in exchange for compensation).
He claimed that even bids livestreamed on YouTube were a farce, with winners already pre-determined.
Contractors offering lower prices than the favored “taker” would often be disqualified on technicalities, such as torn pages or markings in their bidding documents, so that the project would still be awarded to the pre-arranged winner.
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Discaya also alleged that politicians demanded percentages of project costs, which have ballooned from 10 percent during the Aquino administration, 12-15 percent under former president Rodrigo Duterte and as high as 25-30 percent under the current Marcos administration.
Despite repeated attempts to report irregularities, Discaya said his firms were either disqualified or pressured into withdrawing bids to make way for politically connected “takers.”
The contractor said he is now ready to cooperate with authorities and provide attachments and records to back up his claims.
Asked whether the Department of Budget and Management and the DPWH may be held liable for alleged budget insertions in the National Expenditure Program (NEP), Lacson said he could only say there is “at the very least impropriety” in the budget process.
“As I said, the executive branch is in charge in the prep phase, the legislature is in charge with authorization phase. The General Appropriation Act goes back to the exec for implementation and then accountability. For the fourth phase – the oversight, the Commission on Audit and other related parties,” Lacson said.
“Even in the regular budget, if there’s meddling in the prep, it’s not proper because it’s very clear the executive handles the preparation. We wait for the NEP to be transmitted 30 days after the SONA before we can intervene,” Lacson explained. – Neil Jayson Servallos, EJ Macababbad
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