MANILA, Philippines — Commission on Audit (COA) Commissioner Mario Lipana is facing possible impeachment proceedings following revelations that his wife Marilou’s construction firm secured millions in public infrastructure contracts, allegedly through his influence.
Sen. Francis Pangilinan, chair of the Senate committee on justice and human rights, raised the impeachment angle during a Senate Blue Ribbon committee hearing on anomalous flood control projects.
Citing the sworn testimony of dismissed Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) district engineer Henry Alcantara, Pangilinan said Lipana’s actions may constitute an impeachable offense.
Alcantara testified that Lipana approached him in 2022 to request a list of flood control projects in Bulacan.
According to Alcantara, Lipana subsequently secured P1.4 billion in budget allocations for the projects – P500 million from unprogrammed funds in 2023 and P900 million combined in the 2024 and 2025 national budgets.
While Alcantara claimed he had no personal knowledge of how Lipana accessed or allocated the funds, the request itself raised red flags and conflict-of-interest concerns, given Lipana’s position as a COA official.
Lipana’s wife, Marilou, is the president and general manager of Olympus Mining and Builders Group Philippines Corp., which holds multiple government contracts in Bulacan.
Records presented during congressional deliberations show that Olympus currently has nine ongoing contracts with the DPWH in Bulacan totaling over P326 million. The firm has also completed previous projects in the province worth P178 million.
This close link between a sitting COA commissioner and a contractor with active DPWH flood control and farm-to-market road projects has prompted questions about potential conflicts of interest and ethical violations.
As a constitutional body, COA is tasked with ensuring the integrity of government spending, making any suggestion of involvement in project lobbying particularly serious.
The Office of the Ombudsman has launched a fact-finding investigation into Lipana’s role in the alleged budget insertions.
The probe was confirmed during House deliberations on the ombudsman’s proposed P6.2-billion 2026 budget, where Deputy Minority Leader Antonio Tinio raised the issue.
However, the ombudsman’s media office declined to give futher details pending clearance from acting Ombudsman Dante Vargas.
The STAR reached out to COA for comment on whether it would conduct an internal review of Lipana, but the agency only acknowledged the query, saying it had forwarded the request to the Office of the Chairperson.