A HOUSE joint panel on Tuesday issued a subpoena to five contractors who failed to appear during the congressional inquiry into alleged irregularities in flood control projects.
The joint panel is composed of the Committees on Public Accounts, Public Works and Highways, and Good Government and Public Accountability.
The five companies – Royal Crown Monarch Construction and Supplies Corporation, SYMS Construction Trading, Alpha and Omega General Contractor and Development Corporation, St. Timothy Construction Corporation, and Wawao Builders Corporation – were among the 15 firms identified by President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. as receiving the largest share of the government’s over P500 billion flood control budget.
Bicol Saro Party-list Rep. Terry Ridon, chairperson of the House committee on public accounts, stated that the probe will initially focus on a P55 million flood control project for a reinforced concrete river wall in Baliwag, Bulacan, which appears to be nonexistent.
Ridon asserted that the committee has evidence to build cases against officials of the DPWH 1st District Engineering Office and the private contractor, Syms Construction Trading, involved in the alleged “Baliwag ghost project.”
He further stated that plunder charges should be filed against all involved parties, as the project exceeds the P50 million threshold for plunder. Ridon also cited two substandard projects in Calumpit, Bulacan, undertaken by St. Timothy Construction and Wawao Builders, where President Marcos Jr. found concrete deterioration and exposed loose cables and wires.
