Online News Site Looks Into “Favored Contractor” Background

CHEERS TO GMA News Online for its efforts to look more closely into the government dealings of Bulacan-based C.T. Leoncio Construction and Trading, which some congressmen said has been a favored contractor of some Cabinet members for infrastructure projects.

House Majority Leader Rolando Andaya Jr.  Alleged that the company got contracts due to its owner’s supposed ties with President Rodrigo Duterte’s allies.

The report, published on December 17, cited data from the Philippine Government Electronic Procurement System (PhilGEPS), the government’s online portal for procurement data.

The GMA News Research team found that from April 2011 to April 2018, C.T. Leoncio bagged 333 government contracts worth the total of PHP12.94 billion. Government awarded 275 projects, worth PHP9.24 billion to the company alone, without any other partners. Most of these projects were implemented by the different district, provincial and regional offices of the Department of Public Works and Highways.

The report pointed out that in the last six years, C.T. Leoncio had been increasing its business through government contracts, breaking the billion peso mark in 2014.

The GMA research team also found that the Commission on Audit (COA) flagged a project by C.T. Leoncio in Luisiana, Laguna in 2017 for lack of proper documentation. An annual audit report by the COA in the municipality said the payment to the joint venture of C.T. Leoncio and ILG Enterprises for the Level II Potable Water Supply Subproject “had incomplete documents and lacked details/information on some of the documents submitted.” The COA pointed out as well that the contract between the municipality and the contractors was incomplete since there were no terms and conditions and date of notarization.

So far, only GMA News Online has taken the time to check the company’s background and track record; most media reports focused on the claims of the protagonists.

Should Andaya’s accusations pan out, the country could be looking at countless anomalous contracts that would make the Duterte administration’s campaign against corruption a sham.