JLL Pulsar, the development firm based by Cagayan third District Consultant Joseph “Jojo” Lasam Lara and now owned by his kids, has bagged P3.7 billion in contracts from the Division of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) since fiscal yr 2020, coinciding with the time he turned a congressman.
Rappler’s assessment of DPWH’s on-line monitoring portal revealed that the contract haul consists of P2.1 billion in his house province within the final 5 years.
Since fiscal yr 2023, the corporate has bagged P1.37 billion in DPWH contracts. He turned a rating official of the highly effective Home appropriations committee, which evaluations the manager’s proposed nationwide finances, in 2022.
In an interview with Rappler, Lara’s workplace denied utilizing his place to advance the pursuits of his kids’s development firm.
“His place as vice chairman of appropriations has nothing to do with this,” Lara’s chief-of-staff Vic Casauay stated in Filipino. “Their contracts have dropped dramatically (since he turned a congressman).”
“It’s truly unfair to the congressman’s household that their contracts have been decreased to this stage,” he added.
The place the contracts are
Casauay was proper when he famous the decreased contracting fortunes of JLL Pulsar, which Lara owned previous to turning into a congressman.
Underneath Lara’s management, the agency established itself as a dominant pressure within the contracting enterprise in Cagayan Valley.
From 2016 to 2018, the corporate bagged P5.8 billion in DPWH contracts, with their yearly hauls exceeding the billion-peso mark. JLL Pulsar’s most profitable yr was 2016, when the worth of the offers it had received topped P2 billion.
The articles of incorporation of JLL Pulsar is just not accessible within the Securities and Alternate Fee’s (SEC) eSEARCH portal, however Lara’s workplace advised Rappler he eliminated his shares from the corporate earlier than he entered public workplace. Lara first ran for Congress in 2019 and received. He secured reelection for a second and third time period in 2022 and 2025, respectively.
JLL Pulsar continued to safe offers after Lara formally left the corporate, though it was not the regional public works powerhouse it was once. In 2024, the corporate received solely P91 million in public works tasks.
As of August 2025, the corporate has secured solely eight contracts for the present fiscal yr, amounting to P173 million — all of them in his house area, however in Cagayan’s neighboring provinces.
Nonetheless, JLL Pulsar is the corporate with the fourth highest worth of contracts awarded from Cagayan district engineering places of work from 2020 to 2025.
“He by no means entered into contracts in his personal district. For the tasks in his district, he by no means contracted. In actual fact, that’s all the time the query his kids elevate — they must go elsewhere for tasks,” Casauay stated.
Rappler’s analysis confirmed that the final challenge JLL Pulsar had within the Cagayan third district was in 2018, the identical yr that Lara filed his certificates of candidacy. From 2020 to 2022, it bagged a mixed P614 million in DPWH tasks within the Ilocos Area.
Out of the 71 tasks awarded to JLL Pulsar in Cagayan Valley, 59 are for the development of roads and bridges, amounting to P2.6 billion. Solely a dozen contracts are for flood management, valued at P519 million.
Who owns the corporate
Primarily based on the Common Info Sheet submitted to the SEC by JLL Pulsar, Lara’s kids personal 96.28% of the corporate as of March 2025.
Joseph Jeremy Lara and Joseph Joshua Lara personal 26.2% every; Joseph Kyle Lara owns 23.8%; and Joseph Lara II owns 20.08%. The congressman’s daughter-in-law, Jessa Lara, has a 3.72% stake.
Joseph Jeremy is the president of the corporate, Joseph Kyle is the treasurer, and Joseph Joshua is the company secretary.
The agency has a paid-up capital of P250 million.
It holds an “AAA” license from the Philippine Contractors Accreditation Board, making it eligible to bid on massive and sophisticated tasks with contract prices above P450 million. This license ranking means the corporate has met the minimal internet value of P180 million and has accomplished a single challenge valued at above P225 million.
Battle of curiosity?
Republic Act No. 6713 states that public officers shall keep away from battle of curiosity, and when such a scenario arises, they have to resign from their publish in any personal enterprise enterprise and divest their shares.
The regulation defines divestment because the voluntary and full switch of title or disposal of curiosity in favor of individuals apart from their partner and family throughout the fourth civil diploma of consanguinity or affinity.
Casauay insisted Lara’s actions couldn’t even be thought-about divestment as a result of he left the corporate earlier than he filed his candidacy. The regulation doesn’t make a distinction between resigning from an organization earlier than working for workplace and formally divesting whereas already in workplace.
“If a household is in enterprise, after which somebody from the household enters public service — whether or not appointed or elected — does that imply the household enterprise has to cease, even when it existed lengthy earlier than?” Casauay requested.
“The important thing factor is pecuniary curiosity. When this development agency enters into contracts in different districts or with different authorities entities, is there a battle of curiosity with the congressman? None, so long as he has no hand in funding these tasks,” he added.
Politics and enterprise
The Laras tried to increase their political energy in Cagayan when Jojo’s spouse, Zarah, ran for governor in 2022 and 2025 however misplaced on each events.
Throughout their campaigns, they didn’t attempt to distance themselves from their contractor picture. Their election paraphernalia, even their names on the ballots, contained the phrase “Pulsar.”
Rappler confirmed findings of its analysis to finances knowledgeable Ken Abante, who warned of “political and moral implications of a system that rewards politicians linked with contractors.”
“For folks’s belief to be regained, politicians should train management and be past reproach. All politicians, particularly these with direct or oblique relationships with contractors, should disclose their Assertion of Property, Liabilities, and Internet Value (SALN) and Statements of Contributions and Expenditures (SOCEs). They need to waive their financial institution secrecy rights so folks will be assured that they don’t have unexplained wealth,” stated Abante, who convenes the civil society group Individuals’s Price range Coalition.
“The Division of Price range and Administration and SEC should make public the last word helpful possession registry required beneath the New Authorities Procurement Act, because it turns into much more pressing to know who actually owns, controls, and operates these companies. Politicians should recuse themselves from choices that carry undue affect in businesses, even these past their districts,” he added.
Rappler requested Lara’s workplace for a replica of the congressman’s SALN, however his workers didn’t get again to us.
Rappler has written a number of tales highlighting politicians’ ties to authorities contractors amid a rising nationwide dialog on conflicts of curiosity and controversies surrounding public works tasks.
Just lately, Home Majority Chief Sandro Marcos filed a invoice searching for to ban family of public officers from coming into into authorities contracts.
New Home Speaker Bojie Dy additionally sought the inclusion of that proposal within the President’s precedence laws. – Rappler.com
