Who is Mitch Cajayon-Uy, the former Caloocan solon in the flood control mess?

Former Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) engineers Henry Alcantara and Brice Hernandez have separately mentioned former Caloocan 2nd District representative Mitch Cajayon-Uy as an alleged recipient of kickbacks from flood control projects in Bulacan. 

Cajayon-Uy has denied Hernandez's statements during the Senate committee hearing on September 19 that she received some P16.5 million as payoffs from flood control projects from 2022 to 2023. She pointed out that she is a former congresswoman of Caloocan, and not Bulacan.

All projects in Caloocan's second district during her return to the congressional seat from 2022 to 2025, Cajayon-Uy said, are on public record and may be examined by whoever wishes to do so.

Her name was mentioned again in the Senate hearing on Tuesday, September 23, by Hernandez's erstwhile boss, Alcantara, as a recipient of flood control project commissions, along with Senators Jinggoy Estrada, Joel Villanueva, former senator Bong Revilla Jr., and Ako Bicol Representative Zaldy Co. 

Political career

According to her official website, Mary Mitzi Cajayon-Uy was born on May 6, 1978.

Cajayon-Uy was named Miss Caloocan in 2000 and later began her political career as a one-term city councilor from 2004 to 2007.

She ran a successful bid as the representative for the 2nd District of Caloocan, serving in the position for two terms from 2007 to 2013.

In July 2017, she was appointed by former President Rodrigo Duterte as executive director of the Council for the Welfare of Children, an attached agency under the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD).

She left the post at the council to run for her former congressional seat, holding it from 2022 to 2025.

The Duterte-backed Partido Demokratiko Pilipino-Laban (PDP-Laban) party indicates that during her tenure as congresswoman, she held the vice chairperson posts for the House committees on appropriations, labor and employment, and Metro Manila development.

In 2025, Cajayon-Uy lost her reelection bid to Egay Erice.

Pork barrel controversy

In July 2018, Cajayon-Uy was charged with graft and malversation over the alleged misuse of P10 million from her pork barrel or Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) in 2009.

The charges stemmed from P3 million and P7 million funds that were allegedly found to have been released for non-existent or ghost projects under the Comprehensive Integrated Delivery of Social Services (CIDSS) program with Kaloocan Assistance Council Inc. (KACI).

Cajayon-Uy was pointed as the person responsible for recommending KACI as the project partner. 

The Ombudsman found probable cause to indict Cajayon-Uy, former Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) secretary Esperanza Cabral, other officials of the agency,  and the KACI president.

She was acquitted by the Sandiganbayan Second Division in 2021 due to lack of evidence proving her guilt beyond reasonable doubt. — VDV, GMA Integrated News