Pasig seeks documents to help probe flood control projects

Pasig City Mayor Vico Sotto — File photo from Galing Pook/Facebook

MANILA, Philippines — The local government unit (LGU) of Pasig City is filing a freedom of information (FOI) request to access some documents on the city’s flood control projects to help investigate within the city’s jurisdiction, Mayor Vico Sotto said on Sunday.

While Sotto praised the “Sumbong sa Pangulo” website as it contains the list of DPWH’s flood control projects in the city, he noted that more information is needed to further scrutinize the projects.

“The challenge is that we can’t judge the completeness/quality of the projects with just [this] info. We don’t want to just make a subjective judgment; we want real accountability. If it is complete and proper, then it is good; if there is a problem, we should know so we can act on it,” he wrote in a mix of English and Filipino in a Facebook post.

READ: Vico Sotto: Discayas own 2 of top 15 firms in gov’t flood control deals

Sotto said that there is a need to access the program of works and the Bill of Quantities of each project. He explained that these documents provide exact details of a project, such as the materials used, project’s length, and appropriate measurements of materials used.

Aside from this, Sotto added that documents such as the Detailed Unit Price Analysis and bidding documents “may also be worth looking at.”

With this, Sotto shared that the LGU will formalize the FOI request to the Department of Public Works and Highways this week.

“With these documents, the LGU will help the national government investigate within its [jurisdiction]. We’ll also engage civil society organizations, especially for long-term monitoring,” noted.

READ: Marcos: 15 firms corner big flood control works

President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. earlier revealed that P100 billion of the entire P545-billion budget for flood mitigation projects from July 2022 to May 2025 were awarded to 15 out of 2,409 accredited contractors.

Shortly after Marcos made the revelation, Sotto pointed out that two of the 15 contractors identified to have bagged most flood control projects — Alpha & Omega Gen. Contractor & Development Corp. and St. Timothy Construction Corp. — were owned by the Discayas, the family of his 2025 mayoral election rival Sarah Discaya.

While Marcos said that the findings were a “disturbing assessment,” and did not make any accusations about the private contractors, he said that they “stood out very much.”

Sotto then said that corruption in government contracting is an open secret in the public sector. He noted that corruption involves six stages, where “anomalies” or “collusion” may already occur in the first stage, or the procurement or bidding process.

The mayor also vowed that Pasig City, under his leadership, will send all the information and “red flags” involving corruption in government contracting to Marcos.

With this, Malacañang earlier urged LGU officials across the country to follow the lead of Sotto in reporting anomalies in government projects. /das