Solely over a 12 months after the expiration of the Division of Public Works and Highways’ (DPWH) ban order towards an organization owned by scandal-ridden contractors Curlee and Sarah Discaya, the couple bounced again instantly.
St. Gerrard Building, which was barred from taking part within the bidding of public works contracts in 2020, bagged billions of pesos in DPWH contracts from 2021 till the tip of the Rodrigo Duterte presidency in 2022, the most important chunk of which went to Southern Leyte, the province of then-agency head Roger “Oging” Mercado, primarily based on Rappler’s investigation.
In October 2021, Duterte appointed Mercado to the DPWH, succeeding Mark Villar, after the latter stepped down from the Cupboard to run for senator.
“I’ve to say I’ve no information as to the contractors implementing the tasks or rehabilitation,” Mercado instructed Rappler on October 2, distancing himself from the Discayas.
“I didn’t know this agency (St. Gerrard) till now that there’s controversy,” Mercado added.
St. Gerrard blacklisted
St. Gerrard had been banned from getting into public works contracts thrice — in 2015 and 2020 by the DPWH, and simply this 12 months 2025, when the Philippine Contractors Accreditation Board (PCAB) revoked the licenses of Discaya-owned corporations amid tight scrutiny of ghost and substandard flood management tasks.
In 2020, the Villar-led DPWH blacklisted St. Gerrard for delays within the building of a college constructing in Indang, Cavite.
The order was signed in end-January that 12 months, and was in impact a whole 12 months.
The Discayas have been the favourite contractors of the DPWH in the course of the Duterte administration. From 2017 to 2019, the couple’s three corporations — St. Gerrard, St. Timothy, and Alpha & Omega, bagged a minimum of P39 billion in authorities tasks. Half of that quantity, round P19.3 billion, got here from St. Gerrard.
When St. Gerrard was blacklisted by the DPWH in 2020, its contract haul for the 12 months clearly plummeted to zero. The Discayas needed to depend on different companies for income, though the husband and spouse nonetheless made a killing — P16 billion in contracts awarded to St. Timothy and Alpha & Omega that very same 12 months.
The sanction towards St. Gerrard led to January 2021. From February to October that 12 months, the time of Villar’s resignation from the DPWH, the corporate bagged P378 million in infrastructure tasks.
Booming enterprise
After Mercado took over the helm of the DPWH, the Discayas have been capable of revive the contracting enterprise of St. Gerrard within the public works sector.
From October 2021 (Villar’s resignation) to June 2022, St. Gerrard snagged P5.6 billion in DPWH contracts.
It discovered enterprise in 10 of the nation’s 17 areas, however its largest haul was in Japanese Visayas, the place P1.6 billion value of contracts have been awarded to St. Gerrard.
All 16 contracts of St. Gerrard in Area 8 went to just one province — Southern Leyte — the turf of then-secretary Mercado. Earlier than his appointment as DPWH chief, Mercado was the congressman of Southern Leyte’s lone district.
Mercado’s illustration of the province within the Home goes method again to 1987, after the EDSA rebellion and the restoration of a bicameral Congress. He and his relations have represented the province uninterrupted since 2004.
When he resigned from Congress in October 2021 to just accept Duterte’s provide to turn into DPWH secretary, the congressional publish remained vacant. Within the 2022 elections, the province’s lone district was divided into two, and Mercado’s spouse Luz gained the native election to signify the newly-formed 1st District of Southern Leyte within the Home of Representatives.
Out of the 16 contracts awarded to St. Gerrard, 12 tasks value P980 million have been awarded from February to April 2022, simply earlier than the general public spending ban beneath the Omnibus Election Code took impact. 4 extra contracts have been secured by St. Gerrard just a few days after the elections, totaling P622 million.
Fourteen of those tasks have been associated to building of roads; one was a flood mitigation construction; and one different concerned building of a bridge.
Storm-related causes?
Mercado left the company in June 2022, after the Philippines ushered within the presidency of Ferdinand Marcos Jr.
He returned to Congress in 2025, succeeding his spouse who opted out of a reelection bid.
Chatting with Rappler, Mercado defined that St. Gerrard’s tasks in Southern Leyte got here within the wake of the devastation of Tremendous Hurricane Odette in central and southern Philippines.
“As a result of emergency state of affairs, it wanted pressing response. We would have liked to clear the roads. The destruction brought on by Odette was extreme,” Mercado defined. “I requested and ordered the discharge of no matter funds obtainable to rehabilitate and make our roads satisfactory.”
However was he not instructed by his subordinates within the DPWH concerning the messy historical past of St. Gerrard?
“I used to be not knowledgeable,” Mecado stated. “My participation perhaps is the order for the discharge of funds or no matter that was obtainable. Our funds on the time already had designated tasks as a result of it was within the Basic Appropriations Act. So perhaps we have been capable of get from the financial savings and calamity, fast response funds.”
“What I discovered whereas I used to be within the workplace is that I may sense some officers appeared to have a ‘pay board’ of contractors they needed to favor. I had no participation in deciding which tasks can be assigned to a province or area, as a result of by the point I got here in, the finances [had already been set],” he added.
Mercado stated that he has coordinated together with his district engineer to verify whether or not the Discayas have been awarded contracts in Southern Leyte.
“I referred to as the district engineer, and he confirmed {that a} Discaya license was utilized by some native contractors. I then instructed him to analyze their work. He stated the work was wonderful, that it regarded good. However they needed to terminate it as a result of they came upon that the license was already blacklisted by the PCAB and will not be used. So now, the venture has stopped,” Mercado stated.
A evaluate of the DPWH web site reveals there are a minimum of 5 tasks value P333 million awarded to Discaya companies by the Southern Leyte 1st District Engineering Workplace which are nonetheless tagged as incomplete.
The Discayas, linked to the DWPH kickback scandal, have been referred to as by the Philippine Heart for Investigative Journalism the “king and queen of flood management.”
The couple confirmed proudly owning 9 building companies, which often participated in bidding for a similar flood management tasks.
They’ve been compelled to attend congressional inquiries, the place they claimed that public officers requested for commissions as excessive as 25% for each venture. The husband and spouse now wish to be state witnesses. – Rappler.com
