DPWH records of lawmakers’ funding requests summoned

MANILA, Philippines — The Sandiganbayan Third Division has issued a subpoena for the records of requests for project funding and proposed amendments related to infrastructure projects from the Department of Public Works and Highways programming division.

The court, chaired by Associate Justice Karl Miranda, directed DPWH Central Office Programming Section chief Gerard Longoria to produce copies of all funding requests – documentary or otherwise.

Longoria took the witness stand in the malversation trial against former senator Ramon Revilla Jr. and officials of the DPWH Bulacan 1st District Engineering Office over an alleged P92.8-million ghost flood control project in Pandi, Bulacan.

He said it was the late DPWH undersecretary Catalina Cabral who gave instructions and provided lists of infrastructure projects and proponents, which included Revilla, to be included in the revised submissions to Congress.

Proposed amendments, Longoria said, were consolidated by their team before being attached to documents transmitted to Congress.

He said some documents endorsed for inclusion did not always follow a standard format, adding that there were instances when unsigned and undated documents were allegedly received for inclusion in proposed amendments.

Davao ghost projects

House Deputy Minority Leader and ACT-Teachers party-list Rep. Antonio Tinio has asked the Office of the Ombudsman to investigate P4.4 billion worth of flood control projects in Davao City, particularly in the First District, over alleged irregularities including overlapping contracts and double funding.

In a letter to Ombudsman Jesus Crispin Remulla submitted yesterday, Tinio said his party-list, through its independent investigation, found at least 80 contracts from 2019 to 2022 with “red flags.”

He said there were two contracts worth P135 million that funded the same river sections along the Davao and Matina Rivers, which he said “suggests ghost projects or double payment.”

There is also one project worth P115 million that appeared twice in the 2020 national budget and was awarded to two different contractors and eight projects worth P425 million that were built at different locations with shorter lengths than appropriated, but the contractors received nearly full payment.

Tinio also noted 65 contracts worth P3.65 billion that lacked specifications, which made verification impossible, and 10 contracts worth P623 million that had no line item in the national budget.

Apart from these, he said 10 contracts remained incomplete, years past their expiry dates.

Tinio said 49 of the 80 contracts were congressional insertions, all concentrated in Davao City’s 1st Legislative District, which is represented by lawmaker Paolo Duterte from 2019 to 2022.

In a statement, Duterte said DPWH Region 11 maintains records of P49.84 billion worth of completed and above-standard infrastructure projects in Davao City from 2020 to 2022, which he said includes roads, drainage systems and bridges.

In a related development, Sen. Jinggoy Estrada lamented the Department of Justice’s recommendation for the ombudsman to file plunder and graft charges against him for the flood control mess.

“This is an unfortunate development,” Estrada said. — Marc Jayson Cayabyab, Evelyn Macairan