By Robert B. Roque, Jr.
Reports coming out show the Discaya couple’s flagship St. Gerrard Construction has been riding waves of patronage across administrations, even as far back as PNoy’s time.
If you trace the rot, it was under the Aquino administration when St. Gerrard was suspended in 2015 for a spurious tax clearance. Yet, somehow, it still bagged ₱440.5 million in contracts before the suspension was lifted in 2016. That was a clear systemic flaw.
Enter Duterte. From July 2016 to December 2017, St. Gerrard exploded into one of the country’s top contractors, raking in ₱12.3 billion worth of projects under Build, Build, Build. The Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism (PCIJ) got records showing this was only the start — their take likely swelled further during Duterte’s full term. Even a 2020 DPWH blacklist for project delays did little to stop them.
Now, under Marcos Jr., the gravy train has become a flood. From 2022 to 2025, Discaya-linked firms bagged ₱31.6 billion in contracts, most of them for flood control — ghost projects that leave communities drenched and drowning.
And so the story of the Discayas ends where it began, where senators last Monday only mustered to scratch the surface: nine companies, hundreds of contracts, and only 200 employees to “manage” nearly 500 projects! With that equation, anyone can easily sense fraud.
Meanwhile, all hope may be lost in a similar probe in the Lower House’s tricom, as the lead actors there are all posturing, but hesitant to bring in Baguio City Mayor Benjamin Magalong, who had stated he would name names: congressmen whose pockets are lined from these dirty contracts.
The plot thickens at every new discovery, and the corruption is just too much to take, that our stomachs turn.
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