Commissioner’s wife bags flood projects, COA admits conflict of interest
MANILA, Philippines — What began as the Commission on Audit’s (COA) budget briefing in the House turned into a grilling on auditors’ ties to flood control projects, leading its chairperson to concede a conflict of interest involving one of its commissioners.
COA Chairperson Gamaliel Cordoba admitted on Thursday, September 11, that Commissioner Mario Lipana faces a conflict of interest with flood control projects.
How? Lipana’s wife, Marilou "Malou" Laurio, is the president and general manager of a construction firm that actively bags flood control contracts from the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH).
P1-B worth of contracts in Bulacan
She owned Olympus Mining and Builders Group Philippines Corp., which bagged 11 flood control contracts worth P1.012 billion in Bulacan from 2023 to 2025, according to the DPWH’s Project and Contract Management Application Web. A few of these were joint ventures with Le Bron Construction.
Most of the contracts were awarded in 2025. Five of them were essentially one large project, split into packages A to E, all carrying the same vague title: “Construction of Flood Control Structure along Angat River” in Barangay Tanawan, Bustos, Bulacan.
These five contracts alone cost P463.23 million, with each package valued at roughly P92.6 million.
Meanwhile, four flood control projects were awarded in 2024 and two in 2023.
COA, in its report to the appropriations committee, P326.6 million has been paid out of the total project cost of P833.79 million for nine projects of Bulacan First District in just the first seven months of the year.
Since 2023, Olympus Mining and Builders Group have focused on flood control projects in Central Luzon, particularly Bulacan. They also took on other infrastructure work, such as building multi-purpose facilities and maintaining roads in Metro Manila.
Ran for public office. Laurio even sought a congressional seat in the 2025 midterm elections as the first nominee of Vendors Party-list, despite owning a contracting firm. The party-list, however, failed to secure enough votes.
Lipana, born in Bulacan, was appointed by former President Rodrigo Duterte in January 2022, according to COA's website. His term expires in February 2027.
Where does the conflict of interest lie?
Three lawmakers stressed that Lipana is not only a public official but a high-ranking member of the commission that audits government projects funded with public money.
The problem, they said, is that his wife has a direct financial stake in government contracts.
During Rep. Eli San Fernando’s (Kamanggagawa Party-list) interpellation, Cordoba confirmed that COA is aware Lipana is married to a government contractor, but said they only learned of it through media reports.
Rep. Antonio Tinio (ACT Teachers Party-list) questioned him further on whether he believes there is a conflict of interest. Cordoba, however, insisted it was only “potential.”
“Mayroon po kayong commissioner, ang asawa niya ay may malinaw na kontrata at ongoing projects pa nga. Again, yung tanong ko, mayroon ba o walang conflict of interest ang inyong commissioner sa sitwasyong ito?” he asked.
(You have a commissioner whose spouse clearly has contracts, with ongoing projects at that. Again, my question is, does your commissioner have a conflict of interest in this situation or not?)
“Personally, there’s a potential conflict of interest,” the COA chair said, first arguing there would be an actual conflict if Lipana interfered with field auditors of his wife’s projects.
Asked if he believed the Constitution was being violated, Cordoba said he thinks there “slightly is.”
Tinio then read aloud Section 2, Article 9 of the 1987 Constitution, which bars members of constitutional commissions like COA from having any direct or indirect financial interest in government contracts, franchises or privileges.
Pressed again by Tinio, Cordoba admitted he believes Lipana has a financial interest in government contracts since Laurio, a contractor, is his wife.
Rep. Leila de Lima (ML Party-list) stressed that the conflict of interest is clear and not merely a “potential.”
“I was simply appalled by the fact that the commissioner concerned, you were talking about the commissioner earlier, remains to be in office. For me, it’s a clear case not only of a potential conflict of interest. It’s not a potential conflict of interest. It is real, actual conflict of interest,” she said.
Tinio also criticized COA for not acting on the conflict of interest involving one of its two commissioners, suggesting the agency may be colluding with Lipana to keep him in office despite the issue.
“Natutulog ba kayo sa pansitan? O mas masagwa pa nga, baka kasabwat din kayo dito. … Kaya alang-alang sa credibility ng COA, Mr. Chair, ano bang dapat gawin? Hindi ba dapat mag-resign na ang commissioner?” Tinio said.
(Are you sleeping on the job? Or worse, maybe you’re even in on this. … For the sake of COA’s credibility, Mr. Chair, what should be done? Shouldn’t the commissioner just resign?)
He pointed out that the controversy not only damages COA’s credibility but also undermines its ongoing corruption probes in flood control projects.
Since commissioners are impeachable officers with no other disciplinary mechanism, Lipana’s choices are limited. He can only resign voluntarily or risk impeachment.
Resign or be impeached
But where is Lipana, and why is he not at the budget hearing?
According to Cordoba, the commissioner has been on official leave since early August and will remain so until the end of September while receiving medical treatment abroad. He said this has been the case almost every month for the past two years.
De Lima urged the COA chair to take the initiative and speak with Lipana. Cordoba said he would do so once the commissioner returns from medical leave. Otherwise, De Lima warned, an impeachment case may follow.
“Please talk to him once he reports back to office, otherwise one of us or some of us may initiate impeachment proceedings against him,” she said.
“It’s not just about pocketing money, but certain violations like the conflict of interest situation that he is in,” she added, noting they are also grounds for betrayal of public trust.
Seeking a higher budget to bump up salaries, Cordoba told the committee that COA auditors are unable to attend all bids and awards committee proceedings because there are not enough personnel in each engineering district.
COA requested a P16.2 billion budget for 2026, but was only granted P13.89 billion by the executive branch under the National Expenditure Program (NEP).
DPWH hit by thousands of suspensions, disallowances
The COA chief also revealed that the commission has issued thousands of notices of suspension against the DPWH over the past decade. A total of 8,294 notices, worth P313.68 billion, have already been served.
A notice of suspension is basically a temporary red flag for transactions that seem irregular until they’re properly explained.
He added that there are also around 2,000 notices of disallowance, totaling P5.7 billion, which reject certain audited transactions. On top of that, notices of charge — representing uncollected or undercollected funds — amount to P8 billion. This is just for DPWH alone.
Multiple investigations are underway into alleged corruption in flood control projects, with Congress and a new independent commission looking into a decade of infrastructure spending.
COA and DPWH are in the spotlight, as congressional hearings see lawmakers trade accusations based on testimonies from the Discaya family and Bulacan DPWH engineers.
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