MANILA, Philippines — A contractor on Tuesday told the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee that bidding for flood control projects of the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) has long been manipulated by politicians and officials, with contractors forced to play along or face blacklisting.
Pacifico “Curlee” Discaya II, testifying under oath, described what he called a “systematic fraud” that allowed projects to be sold to favored bidders even before the official process began.
“In the public biddings we joined, takers had already been identified. Politicians and their negotiators made sure the projects went to those who bought them,” Discaya said. He explained that “takers” were contractors who had secured projects in advance, often by paying members of Congress with influence over local DPWH district offices.
Discaya said other contractors were pressured to participate only as “players” who were paid to lose. Their bids, he added, were priced close to the predetermined winner’s offer to create the illusion of competition. “Bidders would back out because they knew they could never win,” he told senators.
He also accused members of the Bids and Awards Committee (BAC) of ensuring the outcome was rigged. BAC officials would disqualify bids by tearing pages or declaring documents non-compliant, while helping favored firms “fix” errors in their submissions.
Discaya outlined a system of payments coursed through intermediaries. Negotiators, often BAC insiders, controlled which firms could buy bid documents and join the process; royalties, or license-holders who “lent out” their eligibility in exchange for 3 to 5 percent of the project cost; and players, legitimate bidders paid a “share” – usually one to three percent of the contract price – to withdraw or deliberately lose.
Discaya said the scheme left honest contractors with no choice but to participate or risk sanctions.
“If we refused to play along, our documents were torn up and we were marked non-compliant until we faced blacklisting under the three-strike policy,” he said.
He alleged that the share of project funds demanded by politicians had risen sharply under successive administrations.
“During president (Benigno Aquino III’s) time it was 10 percent. Under president (Rodrigo Duterte) it rose to 12 to 15 percent. Now, under the current administration, it reaches 25 to 30 percent,” he claimed.
Discaya presented himself as a whistleblower, saying he had previously gone to newspapers to expose anomalies but DPWH officials remained unfazed. He said he is now compiling records of his transactions since 2012 to submit to the committee.
