Opinion

Politicos take 70% kickbacks from rock netting, cat’s eyes

GOTCHA - Jarius Bondoc - The Philippine Star

September 20, 2024 | 12:00am

Politicos’ favorite kickback sources are flood works, road widening, asphalt overlay and highway safety devices.

Devices include rock netting and cat’s eyes. Crooks divvy up 70 percent of the multibillion-peso costs.

The netting and cat’s eyes easily disintegrate. Filipinos are left naka-nganga (agape) at repeated rockfalls and broken highway lane markers.

Baguio City Mayor Benjie Magalong researched the racket. The founder of Mayors for Good Governance presented his findings recently to Alyansa ng Nagkaka-Isang Mamamayan. ANIM binds reformist clerics, retired generals, professionals, women, youths and civil society.

Rock nettings line mountain roadsides in the Cordilleras, Southern Tagalog, Bicol, Visayan Islands and Mindanao. They make politicos look concerned about protecting travelers from cliff erosion.

Two types: active, or thin wire mesh with studs; passive, or thicker wire catch fences. DPWH’s Detailed Unit Price Analysis of both is by square meter. Magalong exemplified the passive:

In 2018 the DUPA was already overpriced at P17,000/sqm. In 2023 it zoomed to P25,000/sqm.

Abra, Apayao, Baguio, Benguet, Ifugao, Kalinga and Mountain Province had 438 rock netting works in 2017-2023. Total: P46.61 billion. Breakdown:

• 2017, P1.05 billion;

• 2018, P2.53 billion;

• 2019, P1.5 billion;

• 2020, P4.85 billion;

• 2021, P11.29 billion;

• 2022, P16.63 billion;

• 2023, P8.76 billion.

The budget ballooned starting 2020. “A political cabal took over that year,” Magalong recalls. “The budget deflated in July 2023 after I exposed the corruption.” It reinflated this 2024, an election fundraising year.

In 2019, DPWH engineers claimed that the DUPA was only P14,000/sqm. Magalong disproved them, showing a signed contract for P17,000.

He requested Steel Asia, where he was once SVP-Operations, for costings. It quoted only P6,000/sqm, all anti-rust, zinc-coated, high-grade steel.

In July 2024, after presenting his study in Zamboanga City, a civil engineer corrected him: it’s only P4,300/sqm, “our pass-on price to private developers.”

Meaning, the politicos overpriced each sqm almost six times.

Cordillera subcontractors confided to Magalong, “Pagod na po kami.” Doing what? “Delivering kickbacks.” How? “In suitcases.” To whom? “The contractors.” Who are they? “The politicos.” Who supplies the materials? “The same politicos.”

Minimum kickback is 40 percent. Plus 10 percent as contractor. And another 10 percent as supplier. The politicos pocketed 60 percent of the P46.61 billion – or P28 billion.

“A tricycle driver makes P400 a day, a jitney driver P600, a salaryman P1,500,” Magalong says. “Each politico rakes in P500,000 a day – without paying any tax, without any accountability.”

That’s P182.5 million a year – from rock netting alone.

Cat’s eyes serve as lane dividers. Cordillera politicos installed those not only in road middles but also on both sides. Standard interval is ten meters, but on roads to and in Baguio, it’s only five meters. “Maximized kickbacks,” Magalong notes. “They ordered millions of it here, and many millions more nationwide.”

Specs: cylindrical, 143 mm or 5.5 inches diameter, like a saucer, 47-mm or 1.85 inches thick. Components: micro solar panel, lithium iron phosphate battery, ten-mm LED chip, zinc-coated aluminum frame, polycarbonate top, stainless steel lock screws.

DUPA: P11,720.69. Details: labor, equipment, device, freight and handling, concrete epoxy, drill bits, contractor’s fee, VAT.

Magalong: “They even inserted such justifications as drinking water, and contingencies-miscellaneous like accidents, injuries, deaths.”

He asked suppliers for company accreditations and product qualifications signed by the DPWH secretary, plus quotations.

Best price: P1,624 @, 100 pieces minimum order. P950 device + P500 installation + P174 VAT.

Meaning, the politicos overpriced each unit nearly eight times. “P9.8 billion pocketed,” Magalong says.

“I haggled down the P500 installation per unit,” Magalong recounts. “The supplier admitted that it’s only P200, but he added P300 for the contractors and laborers.”

In sum:

• Politicos demand 30-percent kickback;

• VAT is seven percent, insurance and bond, one percent;

• Bribes “for the boys” – 12 percent to the implementing agency, two percent to the Bids and Awards Committee, three percent contingencies like sudden field inspections and birthdays or offspring weddings of DPWH bosses;

• Ten-percent contractor’s fee – subject to yearlong retention;

• Five-percent contractor’s cost of money.

Those items total 70 percent. Only 30 percent is left for the project itself. Result: substandard materials and workmanship.

“I realized that DUPA really means Detailed Unit Profit Analysis,” Magalong sighs. Sir, permit me to correct you. It’s Detailed Unit PLUNDER Analysis.

* * *

Obituary. Editor, writer, media ombudsman Danilo Luis M. Mariano passed away Tuesday, Sept. 17. He was 71. Although a daily swimmer and frequent scuba diver, he suddenly suffered acute renal failure.

“Sinusundo na ako ng nanay niyo,” he whispered to his children before breathing his last. Tess, his wife of 53 years, died only last February from excruciating brain and bone cancer.

Deepest condolences to his daughter Diwata, sons Toto and OJ, grandchild Angel, brother Mandy and sister Pen.