Discaya firms could face P300B penalties for alleged bid-rigging —Dizon

Construction firms owned by controversial couple Pacifico “Curlee” Discaya and his wife Cezarah Rowena “Sarah” Discaya might be slapped with fines as much as P300 billion for alleged bid-rigging of over a thousand flood control contracts with the Department of Public Works and Highways.

At a press conference on Friday, Public Works Secretary Vince Dizon said the Discaya-owned firms cornered 1,214 flood control contracts from 2016 to 2025 amounting to P77.934 billion.

With this, Dizon said as much as “P300 billion in penalties” may be slapped against the Discayas since “the maximum penalty is P250 million per contract.”

“Mas malaki pa ang penalty kesa sa [amount] of contracts,” the DPWH chief said.

(The penalty is much higher compared to the amount of contracts.)

Dizon made the announcement after the DPWH handed over to the Philippine Competition Commission, a quasi-judicial body tasked with penalizing anti-competitive deals, two bid-rigging cases involving flood control projects.

The first case is against Wawao Builders, IM Construction Corporation, SYMS Construction Trading, St. Timothy Construction Corporation and officials and employees of the DPWH Bulacan 1st District Engineering Office.

The second case is against Sunwest, Inc. as well as officials and employees of the DPWH Regional Office IV-B. 

“Ang Discaya ang pinakamadami… Discaya ang champion dito,” Dizon said.

(Discayas cornered the most number of contracts… They are the champions here.)

“Kasi 2016 to 2025 ‘yun eh… [about] 1,200 plus contracts, flood…,” he said.

The DPWH chief expressed confidence that the PCC will speed up the process of reviewing the cases of bid-rigging it filed against the contractors.

“Ang DPWH na mismo ang nag-provide ng mga ebidensiya so I would think na mas mabilis siguro ito dahil kumpleto na ang ebidensiya na binigay natin,” Dizon said.

(The DPWH, itself, provided the pieces of evidence so I would think this could be fast-tracked because we gave complete evidence.)

“In the case of the Discayas sila na mismo ang umamin na kasama sila sa bid-rigging… under oath nila sinabi ito sa Blue Ribbon so I would think these are circumstances that would help PCC to speed up the process,” he added.

(In the case of the Discayas, they admitted that they are part of bid-rigging… they said it under oath in the Blue Ribbon so I would think these are circumstances that would help PCC to speed up the process.)

During the Senate blue ribbon committee hearing last month, Curlee Discaya detailed how the bidding process for government projects is usually rigged as the winning contractors are already predetermined.

Sarah Discaya, for her part, admitted owning nine construction firms that bid for projects with the DPWH, and that there were times when the said companies bid against each other for the same projects. —AOL, GMA Integrated News