Ex-DPWH chief set to be called by ICI
JUSTICE Secretary Jesus Crispin Remulla yesterday said Sen. Mark Villar and his family are included in the investigation of the Department of Justice into alleged anomalous infrastructure projects of the government.
This as the Independent Commission for Infrastructure (ICI), a body created by President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. to look into anomalies in flood control and other infrastructure projects, said it will invite Villar as a resource person.
Villar is the first chief of the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) under the administration of Rodrigo Duterte.
At the House, Las Piñas Rep. Mark Anthony Santos questioned Villar’s participation in the investigation of the Senate Blue Ribbon committee into anomalous flood control projects, raising a possible conflict of interest with the senator being a former public works secretary.
Santos also raised the Villar family’s reported links to some of the public works projects under investigation.
“If members of Senator Villar’s own family may be involved in these dubious contracts, how can the process be impartial? He cannot lead an investigation where there is a clear conflict of interest,” Santos said in a statement.
Remulla said the investigation on Villar will focus on the purported P18.5 billion worth of infrastructure projects in Las Piñas awarded to the construction company owned by the senator’s cousin, which he emphasized is a “prohibited interest.”
“There are P18 billion worth of projects. We have to follow the lead,” Remulla told reporters in a chance interview.
ICI executive director Brian Keith Hosaka, asked about Villar’s appearance before the body, said: “That’s a possibility, yes, because he is a former DPWH secretary. We will let you know when we will be inviting Senator Villar.”
On former Speaker Martin Romualdez and former Ako Bicol party-list representative Zaldy Co, who is abroad, Hosaka said he has yet to confirm whether the Leyte congressman and Co have received the ICI’s invitation.
“I think, according to our secretariat, he (Romualdez) was invited already, but I just have to find out if the summons or the subpoena was actually received,” Hosaka said.
Co, who resigned on Monday amid corruption allegations, has yet to return to the country. He was earlier reported to be in the US seeking medical assistance.
Romualdez was linked last week by retired Marine Orly Regala Guteza to the alleged kickback scheme in the government’s infrastructure projects, along with Co.
Guteza, a former VIP security for Co, told the Senate last week that he has delivered 35 pieces of luggage containing cash amounting to P1.7 billion to the Makati residence of Romualdez.
Romualdez has denied the allegations.
OTHER CASES
Remulla said projects were awarded to the construction company owned by Villar’s cousin during his time as DPWH chief, and even when he was already an elected senator.
“Yes, and also as a senator. Kasama ‘yan sa relationship, na hindi dapat nangyayari when you participate in the budget process, kasama ka dun (That’s included in the relationship that should not happen when you participate in the budget process. You’re included),” he said.
Remulla noted the investigation on Villar is just one among 67 other cases being examined, and that invitations to the Villars will be extended later as probers work to build up the case, including gathering more evidence and leads based on media reports.
Asked if the investigation would stop with the senator, Remulla, indicated the scope will be much wider, including the entire family, pointing out that prohibited interest extends to relationships from the first to the fourth degree of consanguinity.
He said this covers Mark’s mother, former senator Cynthia Villar (who is a third-degree relation to the contractor), and Mark’s sister, incumbent Sen. Camille Villar.
“I-isang interest lang yan, iisang relationship (It’s one interest, one relationship),” Remulla added.
CONFLICT OF INTEREST
Santos, who defeated Cynthia Villar in the May elections, cited a news report that more than P18 billion worth of contracts were allegedly cornered by a company linked to the Villar family and the inclusion of Carlo Aguilar, a former Las Piñas councilor, “who has been linked to DPWH contracts in Southern Metro Manila.”
“If a relative of the Villar family is among those implicated, the credibility of the entire process is in even greater jeopardy,” Santos said. “How can the public believe in accountability if the family of the investigator is itself under suspicion?”
Santos said Aguilar, a defeated mayoralty candidate, Cynthia’s nephew and a first cousin of Mark Villar, is the managing officer of I&E Construction Corp., which bagged 33 of 339 multimillion-peso projects in Las Piñas since 2022.
Santos said one of I&E’s projects, the P114.9-million Alabang–Zapote Diversion Road (from the Alabang–Zapote flyover to the C5 Bridge) approved in March 2025, has been suspended by DPWH after reporting only 0.50 percent completion due to unresolved right-of-way issues.
He said Aguilar was also reported to be a business partner in a Quezon province project with a contractor identified by the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee as the country’s “top ghost project contractor.”
Santos recalled that on August 19 during a Blue Ribbon hearing, Villar called for a “comprehensive and integrated flood control master plan,” and criticized “fragmented and substandard projects.”
Villar said then that “public funds must not be wasted on projects that are poorly executed or disconnected from a larger plan” and urged senators to “hold erring contractors and personalities accountable.”
Santos said no comprehensive DPWH flood control master plan was turned over to the Marcos administration after Villar left the DPWH in 2021 under the Duterte administration after five years in office.
CASE BUILDUP
Remulla said the DOJ is continuing its case buildup on persons named in hearings of the Senate Blue Ribbon committee and linked to the alleged kickback scheme in the government’s infrastructure projects.
He said these include private contractors, district engineers, and even lawmakers.
“One of the undersecretaries is interviewing the witness who is probably one of the accused later, Usec. Bernardo,” he said, referring to former DPWH undersecretary Roberto Bernardo.
“So, we’re still working on the whole picture and the affidavits that we have to threshed out. The case build up is continuing,” he added.
During the hearing conducted by the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee last week, Bernardo tagged former senators Nancy Binay and Ramon “Bong” Revilla, Sen. Francis Escudero, and Zaldy Co in the alleged kickback scheme on the government’s flood control projects.
Remulla appealed to the public for understanding if the pace of the investigation is not to their liking, adding that probers just want to do a thorough job considering how complex the controversy that has snared congressmen and current and former senators.
We have to look at the totality of this,” he added.
CONTRIBUTIONS
The Commission on Elections (Comelec) confirmed a report of the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism (PCIJ) that Marcos and Vice President Sara Duterte were among recipients of possibly prohibited campaign contributions during the May 2022 polls.
In a media forum in Manila, Comelec chairman George Garcia said Marcos and Duterte were among the recipients as seen in their respective Statements of Contributions and Expenditures (SOCEs) in the May 2022 polls.
“I would like to confirm that those on the PCIJ list are also included in our list. The names listed on the PCIJ are on our list. There is one candidate each for president and vice president,” he said.
However, Garcia said, the Comelec has yet to receive confirmation from the DPWH if all 54 contractors had existing government contracts during the time of the 2022 polls.
PCIJ has said Marcos and Duterte received campaign contributions from public works contractors during the 2022 polls.
Based on their SOCEs, as noted by PCIJ, Marcos received P20 million from the Zamboanga del Sur-based Rudhil Construction & Enterprises Inc. while Duterte was aided by P19.9 million from construction magnate Glenn Escandor of Esdevco Realty Corporation.
Garcia also said the Comelec is set to summon Escudero next week to explain the campaign contributions he received from Lawrence Lubiano, president of Centerways Construction and Development Inc., in the 2022 elections.
Escudero has confirmed Lubiano was a campaign contributor in the 2022 elections, while Lubiano confirmed he donated P30 million to Escudero’s senatorial campaign in the 2022 elections while his firm held several government contracts. – With Gerard Naval
