Ombudsman probing COA Commissioner Lipana's link to flood control mess

The Office of the Ombudsman is investigating Commission on Audit Commissioner Mario Lipana over his alleged link to anomalous flood control projects.

Quezon Representative Keith Tan, sponsor for the Office of the Ombudsman’s proposed P6.2-billion budget for 2026, made the disclosure during the plenary deliberations on Wednesday.

“They [Ombudsman] are currently investigating...there is an ongoing fact finding investigation regarding the case of COA Commissioner Lipana,” Tan said in response to the query of Alliance of Concerned Teachers party-list Representative and House Deputy Minority Leader Antonio Tinio.

It was earlier revealed during the House appropriations panel's hearing on COA’s proposed P13.8-billion budget for 2026 that Lipana’s wife is the president and general manager of Olympus Mining and Builders Group, a construction firm that won at least P326 million worth of government flood control contracts involving flood control structures, river walls, and road dikes in Angat River.

It was also Tinio who quizzed COA Chairperson Gamaliel Cordoba about Lipana’s links to the flood control mess given that the latter's wife is a government contractor, a situation that Cordoba said was a “potential conflict of interest” on the part of Lipana.

A day ago, dismissed Bulacan first district engineer Henry Alcantara also said that he worked with Public Works and Highways Undersecretary Roberto Bernardo in giving 25% commissions off flood control projects to the camps of public officials, including Lipana.

Alcantara said Lipana asked him for a list of projects that can be funded by the DPWH, and that Lipana’s budget request was funded under the unprogrammed appropriations in 2023 at P500 million, 2024 at P400 million, and 2025 at P500 million.

“Wala akong personal knowledge kung paano nila nakuha ang pondo at kung sino ang kausap. Ang listahan ng mga proyektong na ipasok ni Commissioner Lipana ay nakalakip sa sinumpaang salaysay sa Annex po [ng affidavit ko],” Alcantara said.

Quizzed by Tinio on Wednesday if Alcantara is also under the Ombudsman's scrutiny, the anti-graft body also said they are already investigating and conducting lifestyle checks on the individuals allegedly involved in the flood control mess, including Alcantara.

“Yes, they are conducting lifestyle checks on the former DPWH Bulacan First District Engineering Office officials as part of their investigation on the flood control projects,” Tan told Tinio. 

"Rest assured, the Ombudsman is taking an active stance in addressing this issue," Tan added.

During the same interpellation, Tinio also called out the Ombudsman over its failure to investigate huge allocations of flood control projects worth billions of pesos under the DPWH in the years 2023 and 2024.

In response, Tan as the Ombudsman’s 2026 budget sponsor said the Ombudsman found it hard to determine if they should already proceed with a motu propio inquiry, meaning an inquiry initiated by the Ombudsman even without a complaint filed, since there are no available Commission on Audit (COA) annual audit reports yet.

The latest COA annual audit reports posted on its website are from 2023, since COA, starting year 2023, decided to publish the annual audit reports on the agency every December.

This means that the COA annual audit reports for all agencies for the year 2024 will only be available to the public by December 2025, or a year after the year covered in the audit.

“Because there were no COA audits yet, they have no basis to stand on,” Tan replied to Tinio.

Tinio, however, said the lack of annual audit reports from COA is never an excuse for the Ombudsman to shirk its mandate to conduct an investigation, given that the Office of the Ombudsman has a yearly budget for the Anti-Corruption Investigation Program.

For 2026, the Ombudsman is seeking an P870-million budget for its  Anti-Corruption Investigation Program.

“Do you really need to wait for COA annual audit reports? Is that how it works? Then we are no different from each other because we are also waiting for the COA annual audit reports. You are asking for a budget for your Anti-Corruption Investigation Program and this year (2025), you were even given P787 million for this,” Tinio said.

“This is frustrating,” he added.

Based on the Ombudsman's records, there are 2,902 complaints pending before the Ombudsman.

Of this number, 1,320 are criminal complaints, four are forfeiture cases and 1,507 are administrative cases. — AOL/BM, GMA Integrated News