Plunder raps revived vs Duterte, Go over infra deals

ONE MORE TIME: Former Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV is back with a cartload of accusations on Tuesday, October 21, 2025, at the Office of Ombudsman now headed by Jesus Crispin Remulla, hoping to finally pin down ex-President Rodrigo Duterte and Sen. Bong Go. — Photo by Grig C. Montegrande

MANILA, Philippines—Reviving a 2024 complaint dismissed by the previous Ombudsman, former Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV has again sued former President Rodrigo Duterte and his longtime aide, Sen. Bong Go, over the more than a hundred public works contracts awarded to two companies owned by Go’s family.

The new complaint filed on Tuesday again alleged that the companies cornered nearly P7 billion worth of contracts since 2007, all owing to the lawmaker’s stature as a loyal aide and “alter ego” of Duterte.

It accused the former president, Go, and two of the lawmaker’s family members—his father, Deciderio, and brother, Alfred—of graft, violation of the code of conduct for government personnel, and plunder, the latter a non-bailable offense.

“Respondent Go clearly took advantage of his public positions as an aide and alter-ego of Respondent Duterte, in cornering illicitly billions upon billions of public infrastructure projects in favor of the unqualified sole proprietorship registered in the names of his father and brother, thus, unduly enriching himself and members of his immediate family,” the complaint said.

“Respondent Duterte, who is a lawyer and a former public prosecutor, consciously, knowingly, and deliberately connived with him and/or indulged him in this illicit scheme, obviously as a reward for respondent Go’s blind and canine loyalty,” it added.

Trillanes said his first complaint was filed in July 2024 at the Department of Justice and was endorsed to the Ombudsman five days later by Prosecutor General Benedicto Malcontento.

On June 2 this year, then Ombudsman Samuel Martires dismissed the complaint, he recalled.

In an interview with reporters later, Trillanes said that when it reached the Ombudsman back then, ”not even a day or an hour was devoted [to] investigating it.”

”They really buried it. So we had an opportunity to add to what we earlier filed,” he said.

Go, who served as special assistant to the President during Duterte’s term in Malacanang, said he was expecting such a move from Trillanes, calling it a rehash of the 2024 complaint and a tactic to divert public attention away from real culprits in the public works corruption scandal.

In the 35-page complaint filed on Tuesday at the Office of the Ombudsman, Trillanes accused Duterte and Go of awarding billions of pesos’ worth of infrastructure projects to CLTG Builders, which is owned by Go’s father, and Alfrego Builders & Supply, which is controlled by the senator’s brother.

He said the two firms “cornered approximately P6.95 billion in government infrastructure projects from 2016 to the present,” involving more than 200 projects mostly in the Davao region.

According to Trillanes, Duterte and Go had been committing these acts since the former’s tenure as mayor of Davao City until his presidency. Duterte was mayor of Davao City from 1988 to 1998, 2001 to 2010, and 2013 to 2016, the year he ran and won for president.

Trillanes said more than P816 million of the contracts were secured through a joint venture between CLTG Builders and St. Gerrard Construction General Contractor & Development Corp., a company owned by the couple Pacifico and Cezarah Discaya, who have been linked to anomalous flood-control projects under investigation since August this year.

Flood-control projects

Citing data from the Commission on Audit (COA), Trillanes alleged that CLTG was awarded 125 projects in the Davao region by the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) from March 2007 to May 2018.

Some of the projects were under Duterte’s centerpiece ‘Build, Build, Build’ infrastructure program, he said, with COA records showing that CLTG secured 27 projects worth about P3.2 billion in 2017 alone.

On the other hand, Alfrego won 59 public works projects in the Davao region from June 2007 to July 2018, amounting to P1.74 billion, according to the complaint.

Trillanes noted that in 2018, Alfrego won contracts for 23 projects costing a total of P1.3 billion.

Also under Marcos

Alfrego also cornered five flood control projects during the Marcos administration, all in Davao del Sur.

“These projects amounted to P327.2 million worth of flood-control projects, all reported by the DPWH to have been completed within just a little over one year, ranging from August 2023 to November 2024,” the former senator said in the complaint.

Aside from the COA records, the complaint also cited entries in the Sumbong sa Pangulo website, the online complaint desk ordered set up by President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., to identify the five Davao City flood control projects:

• Construction of concrete revetment on the Balite section of the Talomo River (P86,513,783.34)
• Construction of concrete revetment on the Los Amigos section of the Talomo River (P48,866,414.37)
• Construction of concrete revetment on a section of Davao River (P96,498,666.24)
• Construction of concrete revetment on a section of the Talomo River (P47,647,054.64)
• Construction of concrete revetment on another section of the Talomo River (P7,696,875.08)

Baseless claims

In a press conference on Tuesday, Go did not confirm or deny the contracts and the amounts cited by Trillanes, only saying that its filing would finally give him “the proper forum to prove the baselessness of his allegations.”

“I now have the opportunity to answer him point by point before the Ombudsman and not in the media anymore,” he said.

“I will cooperate with the investigation and abide by its legal processes… I hope that the Ombudsman (Jesus Crispin Remulla) will be fair,” the senator added.

He said Trillanes was “barking [up] the wrong tree,” daring him to file cases against the public works contractors being questioned in the congressional hearings.

“Why don’t you file a case against your financiers? Those contractors. You know that. We’ve been holding hearings here in the Senate about that for months now,” he said. “The truth is already coming out and it has been revealed who the contractors were… they are also the congressmen. Go after them, Trillanes.”

Go insisted he had nothing to do with the operations of his family’s businesses, which he said had been in operation even before he was born. — With Inquirer Research 

READ: Go on plunder case Trillanes filed: You’re barking up the wrong tree