Mayor denies daughter’s firm got P551-M govt contracts as favor from Diokno

Former Aremar Construction Corp. executive Edwin Hamor, the father-in-law of Budget Secretary Benjamin Diokno's daughter, has denied that Aremar got P551 million worth of government contracts as a favor from Diokno.

Hamor, who now serves as Casiguran, Sorsogon mayor, issued the statement a day after House Majority Leader Rolando Andaya accused the Aremar firm of being the beneficiary of government contracts by showing a deposit slip revealing that an P11-million payout was made to Aremar's bank account by the government, and that Aremar's joint venture partner CT Leoncio construction is just a front and was just receiving commission fee for the said cornered government projects.

The joint venture projects of CT Leoncio and Aremar being questioned by Andaya are the following: improvement of the Ariman-Casiguran Road (P47 million), Barcelona-Casiguran Diversion Road (P96 million), a tourism road in Bulusan National Park (P115 million) and the section of Daang Maharlika Road in Sorsogon (P289 million).

“Aremar was established in 2014 when I was out of government and [working] in the private sector. I divested [my shares] before I assumed as mayor in 2016 in favor of my sister, Grace Hamor-Yu, and my daughter, Maria Minez Hamor,” Mayor Hamor said.

Diokno's daughter Charlotte is married to Mayor Hamor's son, Jojo Sicat.

“Maria, my daughter outside of wedlock before I married [my wife Esther], now owns majority of Aremar,” Hamor said.

Still, Hamor then said that Aremar's joint venture agreement with CT Leoncio Construction and Trading, which involves four infrastructure projects in Sorsogon, is legal.

“Joint ventures are legal and allowed by the DPWH (Department of Public Works and Highways) provided that it has a Philippine Contractors Accreditation Board (PCAB) approval and special license for joint venture purposes. All these joint ventures have PCAB approval and a numbered special license,” Hamor said.

The joint venture projects being questioned by Andaya include: improvement of the Ariman-Casiguran Road (P47 million), Barcelona-Casiguran Diversion Road (P96 million), a tourism road in Bulusan National Park (P115 million) and the section of Daang Maharlika Road in Sorsogon (P289 million).

“The procurement law requires that all projects be open to all contractors. And it’s not the Department of Budget and Management that bids out and releases – it is the DPWH,” Hamor added. — MDM, GMA News