Oriental Mindoro Gov. Dolor bares P17B budget insertions for flood control

Oriental Mindoro Governor Humerlito “Bonz” Dolor on Monday revealed that P17 billion was inserted in their budget from 2022 to 2025 for flood control projects.

During the hearing of the Senate Blue Ribbon committee, Dolor said his province was given P12 billion under the National Expenditure Program, which spiked to P30 billion under the General Appropriations Act.

“Total insertion po is P17.8 billion as far as flood control projects are concerned, which are P25 million and above. Ulitin ko po, we did not include other projects which did not include flood control,” he said.

(Total insertion is P17.8 billion as far as flood control projects are concerned, which are P25 million and above. I repeat, we did not include other projects which did not include flood control.)

In his presentation, Dolor presented “substandard” and “overpriced” flood control projects of the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) with contractors Sunwest and St. Timothy Construction Corporation.

According to Dolor, one project was designed seemingly with tourism in mind.

“Simula pa lang po may mali na. Una, hindi akmang disenyo. Saan po kayo nakakita ng flood control pero dinisenyo ng DPWH na parang gumagawa ng boulevard… 20 meters na lapad na kalsada tapos lalagyan ng konting semento sa kanan tapos kwentong semento sa kaliwa,” he said. 

(From the start there was already something wrong. First, the design was not appropriate. Where have you seen a flood control project designed by the DPWH as if they were building a boulevard… a 20-meter wide road, then just putting a bit of cement on the right and a bit of cement on the left.)

Asked who the contractor is, the governor answered it was Sunwest. The company is one of the 15 contractors that received 20% of the total P545 billion budget of flood control projects.

Meanwhile, Dolor also flagged alleged substandard road dikes. Aside from this, Dolor said there are multiple titles with no specific barangays or sitio.

“Ito pong ghost sa Sitio Dike, [St. Timothy] Elite,” he said.

He dubbed another project under St. Timothy as the “Manananggal Project.”

“Nakalagay po sa contract is 325 meters. Ang ginawa lang nila nung 2023 is ay 189. Nawala ang kalahati. Tapos ngayon nang pumutok ang issue, binabalikan po. Para pong manananggal. Binabalikan ang kalahati ng katawan pag tapos na,” he said.

(It is stated in the contract that it should be 325 meters. They only did 189 in 2023. Half of it is unfinished. And now that the issue has exploded, they are going back to it. It’s like a ghost that splits in two. They’re going back to finish the other half of the body afterward.)

“Sino po ang kontraktor? St. Timothy po,” he added. 

(Who is the contractor? It’s St. Timothy.)

Dolor said that when he sought clarification from the DPWH, he was told that it was because there was “someone up above” that needed to be paid.

“TInanong ko po si Director Pacanan ng DPWH… simple lang po ang sinabi niya sa akin. [Governor] maganda naman po sana ‘yung disenyo. Kaya lang ho, alam niyo naman may kailangan ho bigyan ng 25% sa taas,” Dolor said.

(I asked Director Pacanan of the DPWH… he simply told me. [Governor] the design was actually good. But you know, someone up there still needs to be given 25%.)

Dolor was referring to former DPWH Region IV-B Director Gerald Pacanan, who was reassigned to the central office.

In the same hearing, contractors Sarah and Curlee Discaya disclosed the names of several congressmen, their staff, and officials of the DPWH who are allegedly involved in corruption in the country’s flood control projects. — RF, GMA Integrated News