Leviste: DPWH engineer just a pawn of big fish

MANILA, Philippines — The Batangas district engineer of the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) nabbed over attempted bribery was just a broker for an influential personality, Batangas 1st district Rep. Leandro Legarda-Leviste said yesterday.

“The money was not Abelardo Calalo’s, and he was not the one who benefited from this. He is just one of the pieces of the puzzle in the DPWH, where I, being a congressman, should help reform the system,” the lawmaker said in Filipino.

Asked who the “big fish” was using Calalo as a pawn, Leviste told “Storycon” on One News that the person is currently “very popular.”

“This is not just about one person. I think and in my view, this has long been a recurring problem in the Department of Public Works and Highways,” he added.

On Friday, police recovered a little over P3 million in cash from Calalo, supposedly bribe money for Leviste. The congressman said the engineer personally went to his office carrying the bag of cash, which also included a receipt listing three projects.

According to Leviste, this meant the cash was directly tied to ongoing contracts.

Leviste filed charges of direct bribery, corruption of public officials, anti-graft and corrupt practices and violations of the Code of Conduct and Ethical Standards for Public Officials against Calalo yesterday before the Batangas provincial prosecutor.

He also encouraged Calalo and other current or former DPWH employees or contractors to turn state witness.

“This goes beyond a P3.1-million bribe, but rather up to over P300 million annually of SOPs (standard operating procedures) or kickbacks from DPWH projects reserved for a congressman of the 1st district of Batangas,” Leviste said.

According to Leviste’s sworn statement, Calalo reportedly explained that contractors were willing to give him five to 10 percent of the P3.6 billion worth of projects in the district, equivalent to P180 million to P360 million, as “support” for his educational programs.

Leviste detailed that one contractor was reportedly prepared to withdraw an initial P15 million, while the P3.1 million presented by Calalo represented three percent of a P104-million project, with receipts included in the cash provided.

According to Leviste, district engineers described to him how projects were awarded without genuine bidding in the 1st district of Batangas, where contractors are allegedly handpicked by a sitting congressman in exchange for kickbacks.

District engineers also identified major contractors and named those who supposedly influenced project bidding and implementation during the tenure of a previous 1st district representative.

SOP normalized

“If I had agreed, meetings with contractors would have taken place this week, potentially generating hundreds of millions of pesos in kickbacks from 2025 projects. Over three years, the total kickbacks reserved for a congressman of a 1st district of Batangas could exceed P1 billion,” Leviste said.

Leviste told Storycon yesterday that the issue goes beyond one district engineer.

“The engineer himself called it SOP, which shows how normalized this practice has become. Even if a congressman does not accept the 10 to 20 percent, it is already embedded in the budget. If one person refuses, someone else in the system takes it,” he said.

Leviste added that the substandard works in his district, including flood control projects that collapsed during recent typhoons, exposed how public funds were being wasted.

“We found sheet piles that were supposed to be 15 meters long but were only four meters. These were paid for with taxpayer money. This is why I will not accept any SOP,” the lawmaker said.

Chiz warns contractors of arrest

Senate President Francis Escudero said he has signed the subpoenas issued against 10 DPWH contractors who snubbed the Senate Blue Ribbon committee investigation on possible corruption in flood control projects.

The contractors risk arrest if they snub the probe again, Escudero added in a chance interview yesterday at the Senate.

Escudero said he signed the subpoenas last week and expects that the Office of the Sergeant-at-Arms would serve these to the contractors this week.

He said these contractors should face the Senate during the second scheduled hearing next week, amid allegations that they were among the top 15 contractors which cornered P100 billion of the total P545.6 billion in flood control projects since 2022.

“Accusations recently are left and right, but in reality, any form of corruption or ghost project must be looked at and investigated and those found at fault penalized,” he noted.

Escudero said he will not hesitate to sign arrest warrants if the contractors continue to defy the Senate’s orders to attend the hearings.

Senate Sergeant-at-Arms Mao Aplasca said four subpoenas were served to contractors based in Metro Manila, while the remaining six will be served to contractors based in Albay, Sorsogon, Bulacan, Pampanga and Benguet.

Profiteering slammed

Sen. Bong Go, vice chairman of the Senate Blue Ribbon committee, condemned anomalous infrastructure projects, stressing that all those responsible – from contractors to legislators – must be investigated and held accountable.

“They profited from the flooding? Hold them responsible for this mess!” Go declared, as he called out ghost projects, subpar infrastructure and questionable allocations for flood control.

The senator emphasized that no one should be spared in the ongoing probe. “Whether a relative, friend or name-dropper, we should not coddle anyone, especially those who enriched themselves from projects that were haphazard and endangered the lives of the public.”

Go described the situation as a grave insult to Filipinos, pointing out how revelations of massive irregularities coincided with devastating floods nationwide.

“For the record, as early as August 2023 during a Senate hearing of the committee on public works, I already called out DPWH to provide a flood control master plan, present their accomplishments that truly benefitted the people and explain their prioritization since I have personally discovered flood control projects situated in areas with little to no human population. Who is being protected by these flood control projects? Perhaps it was intentionally hidden so their corruption won’t be discovered,” the senator said.

Villar alarmed over fake geotagged photos

Former public works secretary and now Sen. Mark Villar raised alarm over reports that contractors “may have submitted falsified geotagged photos” to get funding for their projects with government.

Villar issued the statement amid reports of ghost and substandard flood control projects due to the alleged collusion among corrupt lawmakers, DPWH district engineers and contractors.

“Did these faulty contractors submit faked geotagged photos? If so, that is outright fraud,” Villar said yesterday, calling out these contractors who willfully deceive the government.

“No contractor should have been able to collect from the government on the basis of deception,” Villar said.

He said when he was DPWH secretary from 2016 to 2021, he required geotagging all infrastructure projects as an anti-corruption measure.

In his Department Order (DO) No. 79 signed in 2017, Villar required the taking of geotagged photos before, during and after the implementation of the public works project.

“In order to improve transparency and accountability, construction personnel shall capture geotagged photographs of all infrastructure projects for implementation in accordance with the Guidelines for Geotagging Infrastructure Projects in Contract Management Stage. The use of geotagging technology will provide a more transparent and accurate reporting of project accomplishments,” the DO read, as published in the DPWH website.

Geotagging is defined in the DO as “the attachment of geographical identification to electronic media such as photographs, video or any file.”

It includes “the attachment of x and y coordinates to a photograph, so that the location at which the photograph was taken can be shown automatically in a map.”

“The whole purpose of mandatory geotagging was to make sure the government and the public could verify that work was actually being done where and when it was supposed to be,” Villar said. — Mark Ernest Villeza, Marc Jayson Cayabyab, Evelyn Macairan, Bella Cariaso