Just two construction companies believed to be belonging to the same business conglomerate based in Albay bagged 19 projects, worth a total of P2.9 billion, out of the P4.6 billion budgeted by the national government for the flood control program in Catanduanes in the last four years.
A check of the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) website showed that from 2022 to 2025, it bid out contracts for the construction of flood mitigation structures, including river control structures, road dikes and seawalls: P1.27 billion in 2022, P994 million in 2023, P1.48 billion in 2024, and P917 million in 2025.
The total of P4.66 billion is more than double the aggregate worth of flood control projects implemented during the previous five-year period from 2017 to 2021, which totaled just over P1.8 billion, the DPWH records show.
Sunwest, Inc., formerly known as Sunwest Construction & Development Corporation, won a P168.2 million contract for the construction of road dike along Hitoma river in Caramoran in 2022.
The following year, it snagged three other contracts: P192.8 million for the construction of flood control structure at Binagasbasan, Paraiso, San Miguel; P192.9 million for the construction of road dike along Hitoma river (Phase I) in Caramoran; and P192.9 million for the Phase II of the same project along Hitoma river.
Its sister company, Hi-Tone Construction & Development Corporation, was awarded two projects in 2022: the P110.9 million construction of Obi river control structures and the P77.2 million construction of Hitoma river flood control structure, both in Caramoran town.
The next year, in 2023, it bagged the P159.2 million construction of Pajo river flood control in the capital town of Virac.
Its two-year total of P347 million was soon eclipsed by its 10-project haul in 2024 valued at P1.25 billion.
The flood control structure projects were listed as follows: P93.6 million in Simamla, Virac; P187.5 million in Sto. Domingo, Virac; P28 million in Calatagan Tibang-Danicop, Virac; P193 million in Hicming, Virac; P187.2 million in sitio Tagbak, Paraiso, San Miguel; P187.2 million in Obi, Caramoran; P192 million in Pajo Baguio, Virac; P93.6 million in Ibong Sapa, Virac; P93.6 million in Buyo, Virac; and P93.6 million in Gogon Sirangan, Virac.
This year, Hi-Tone was awarded four more flood control projects worth a total of P748.8 million: P187.2 million for the Hitoma river road dike in Caramoran; P187.2 million for a similar road dike in Hicming, Virac; P187.2 million for a dike along the river in Sto. Cristo, Virac; and P187.2 million for the rehabilitation of flood control structure in Solong, San Miguel.
All told, Hi-Tone won a total of P2.45 billion in flood control projects while Sunwest had P578.6 million during the past four years.
Hi-Tone’s total does not include the P95 million contract for two flood control projects in 2018.
In comparison, their closest local competitors, Aljon Construction and Development, Inc. (ACDI), had a total of P446 million in flood control projects from 2022 to 2024.
The other sizeable construction firms in Catanduanes had smaller amounts for the same period: AV Laynes Trading & Construction, P245.2 million; NQA Construction, P230.9 million; and ERR Construction, P81.8 million.
The Sunwest and Hi-Tone projects were among those awarded by the DPWH regional office after the conduct of public bidding.
Incidentally, one of those named by President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. in his 2025 SONA as among the top 15 contractors which bagged huge flood control contracts was in the list of firms which were awarded such projects in Catanduanes.
St. Timothy Construction Corporation, allegedly owned by the controversial Discaya couple of Pasig City, was the contractor of a P47.3 million river control project in Bocon, Caramoran, in 2020 but a source said it was an island entity which actually implemented the project that was competed in 2021.
A LION’S SHARE OF INFRA FUNDS
DPWH records show that from 2017 to 2020, there were no flood control projects for Catanduanes that were implemented by the regional office.
However, beginning in 2021, DPWH ROV began implementing big-ticket projects intended for the six Bicol provinces,
From just P52 million in 2021, the total amount of flood control projects it handled for Catanduanes increased to P440 million in 2022, P936 million in 2023, P1.35 billion in 2024 and P888 million this year.
According to DPWH insiders, the Catanduanes DEO does not have oversight over all projects implemented by the regional office, which has its own project or site engineers to oversee its own projects even in far-flung provinces.
However, it is claimed, most of the engineers are not at the project site most of the week as they visit the island for one or two days at most.
NO GHOST PROJECTS
A local contractor who chose not to be identified insisted that there are no ghost flood control projects in Catanduanes, compared to other provinces named in recent news coverage of the controversy.
What could be discovered in the projects implemented on the island by the DPWH regional office would either be inadequate reinforcement, reduced length of steel sheet piles, substandard concrete mix, or locating such projects in isolated areas where they are not necessary, he claimed.
It was also clarified that not all of the flood control projects listed in the name of the winning local contractors were actually done by them as there were some which were undertaken by other entities, including political figures in the province.
Breaking down the flood control projects implemented in the 11 towns from 2017 to 2025 indicates that the capital town of Virac received the highest allocation at P2.5 billion, followed by Caramoran at P1.42 billion.
| TABLE 1: Actual DPWH Flood Control Contracts per Municipality in Catanduanes | ||||
| MUNICIPALITY | 2017-2021 | 2022-2025 | TOTAL | Percent of Total |
| Bagamanoc | P 57 million | P 59 million | P 116 million | 1.8% |
| Baras | P 99 million | P 364 million | P 463 million | 7.2% |
| Bato | P 94 million | P 296 million | P 390 million | 6.1% |
| Caramoran | P 245 million | P 1.177 billion | P 1.422 billion | 22.0% |
| Gigmoto | P 35 million | 0 | P 35 million | 0.5% |
| Pandan | P 80 million | P 100 million | P 180 million | 2.8% |
| Panganiban | P 96 million | P 29 million | P 125 million | 1.9% |
| San Andres | P 244 million | P 320 million | P 564 million | 8.7% |
| San Miguel | P 78 million | P 572 million | P 650 million | 10.1% |
| Viga | 0 | P 8 million | P8 million | 0.1% |
| Virac | P 769 million | P 1.738 billion | P2.507 billion | 38.8% |
| TOTAL | P 1.797 billion | P 4.663 billion | P6.46 billion | 100.0% |
CLUSTERING OF PROJECTS IN THREE RIVER SYSTEMS
Analysis of the DPWH project data for the eight-year period shows the preponderance of flood control projects in three river systems: Bato river in San Miguel, Pajo River in Virac and Hitoma River in Caramoran.
Among the three, the banks of the Bato river in San Miguel got the least amount of river control dikes with a total of about P660 million scattered along barangays Paraiso, Solong, Katipunan, and Buhi.
In the capital town of Virac, the Pajo river, which begins in the Dugui area and meanders through Buyo, Hicming, Sto. Domingo, and the two Pajo barangays, now boasts of river dikes costing a total of P1.31 billion.
A smaller river, Gogon, was funded with a total of P150.9 million, the same DPWH records state.
In Caramoran, the Hitoma river, which runs from barangay Obi and passes through Iyao and Salvacion on its way to the outlet at Hitoma, received a total of P1.1 billion in flood control projects.
The huge amount was allocated to just two interconnected projects: the Hitoma Road Dike which got five allocations totaling P818 million, all released in the last four years; and Obi River Control Project, with two allocations in 2022 and 2024 totaling P298 million.
Barangay Obi, with a population of 1,389 as of the 2020 census, sits at an elevation of 47 meters, with most of its houses clustered on a small, riverside flat area.
It hosts the Hitoma 1 Mini-Hydroelectric Power Plant operated by Sunwest Water & Electricity Co. (SUWECO), the lone supplier of electricity to the Catanduanes island grid.
Its other mini-hydroelectric power plant is in Solong, San Miguel, the site of a P187-million flood control project awarded to Hi-Tone Construction & Development Corporation in February this year.