Marcos flags ‘disturbing’ stats: 15 contractors got P100B in flood control projects

(UPDATE) PRESIDENT Ferdinand Marcos Jr. on Monday said only 15 out of more than 2,000 contractors cornered P100 billion in flood control projects, accounting for 18 percent of the P545.64 billion spent for 9,855 such projects from July 2022 to May 2025.

“I don’t know about you, but that is a very big number by any measure. That is an enormous number. This is a disturbing statistic,” Marcos said, as he shared the results of an initial review of all government flood control projects since he assumed office three years ago.

“Out of those 15 contractors, five of them have contracts across the whole Philippines. Five of these contractors have projects in almost all regions nationwide. That for me stood out very much. Those are the ones that immediately popped that we have to look into more,” he added.

DISTURBING President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. shows a list of contractors who allegedly got awarded with the bulk of government flood control projects. PHOTO MIKE ALQUINTO

The five firms the president highlighted were Legacy Construction Corp., Alpha & Omega General Con-tractor and Development Corp., St. Timothy Corp., EGB Construction Corp. and Road Edge Trading & Development Services.

The other 10 are QM Builders, Topnotch Catalyst Builders Inc., Centerways Construction and Develop-ment Inc., Sunwest Inc., Hi-Tone Construction & Development Corp., Triple 8 Construction & Supply Inc., Royal Crown Monarch Construction & Supplies Corp., Wawao Builders, MG Samidan Construction, and L.R. Tiqui Builders Inc.

“We’ll still go through every single one and we still have to see what really is credible and what needs to be asked. So, let’s also be fair to everyone and not say, ‘they did this, they did that,’ unless we have a good idea of what we’re talking about,” Marcos said.

“Let’s be circumspect about pointing fingers and shouting at people,” he added.

Apart from this, the chief executive also pointed out that 6,021 flood control projects “do not specify the exact type of flood control infrastructure built, repaired, or rehabilitated.”

Several projects in different locations also have the same exact contract cost with the same designs, materials, and length despite differences in location or terrain.

“I think anybody who works in either the private sector or the public sector, when told there are 50 projects and they’re the same, that’s impossible,” he said.

“It is impossible for one barangay, even if they are the next barangay, to have the exact same project for the exact same amount with the exact same contractor. And that is why that is a significant finding already that we have made,” he added.

‘Sumbong sa Pangulo’

The audit came following his earlier order to pertinent government agencies to present all the flood control projects and pinpoint those which were either ineffective or “just figments of the imagination” that resulted in many parts of the country being submerged in massive floods in the wake of the mon-soon rains and consecutive storms late last July.

To make the process more transparent, the president launched a dedicated interactive website, sum-bongsapangulo.ph, solely for the government’s flood mitigation measures.

“We have put it into a form that is accessible to the public. And most importantly, it is in a form that the public can use so that they can, first, identify the projects — the flood control projects that are within their area, within their barangay, so that they can actually go and look at it. Or if they already have in-formation, they can tell us if the project was good, or why it was not good, what the problem is, etcet-era. And that’s what the present website is supposed to do,” he said.

He urged the public to not hesitate to send their reports or complaints regarding flood control projects in their localities.

He assured them that he will personally comb through each entry sent to the website.

“What you write in the report [on the website], I will read it myself. That’s what you can expect, I’ll read each one,” the chief executive said.

Vico Sotto weighs in

Pasig City Mayor Vico Sotto, meanwhile, linked the Discaya family, his political rivals in the last local elections, to two companies included in President Marcos’ list of top recipients of flood-control pro-jects worth billions of pesos.

The mayor issued the statement after Marcos presented the Department of Public Works and High-ways top 15 contractors, which included Alpha & Omega General Contractor & Development Corp. and St. Timothy Construction Corp., two firms that he said are owned and controlled by the Discayas.

Sotto said corrupt contractors typically operate under what he called the “six stages of corruption,” starting from alleged anomalies or collusion during bidding, to substandard or even non-existent pro-jects, hefty kickbacks, and tax evasion.

He said the scheme also includes underreporting business taxes to the local government — citing one top contractor that declared zero gross revenue in Pasig — and eventually using a fraction of illicit gains to build political influence under the guise of public assistance.

“Pasigueños, it may be difficult and even dangerous, but let’s do our part in exposing and ending these systemic practices of corruption,” Sotto said in his Facebook post.

For the city government’s part, he said two steps will be taken — sending all information and red flags to the president, and continuing legal cases to collect what he described as “millions if not billions of pesos” in unpaid local business taxes.

The Discaya family has yet to issue any statement in response to the allegations as of this writing.