Why are they so rich?

Over the weekend, a vlog resurfaced of an interview last year by TV5’s Julius Babao with Cezarah Rowena “Sarah” Discaya, featuring the 40 luxury vehicles that she and her husband Pacifico “Curlee” Discaya II have in their garage.

The vehicles specifically pointed out by the proud owner include a Mercedes Benz, a Bentley and the crown jewel, a Rolls Royce in what she described as “Hermes orange” upholstery and night-sky ceiling effect.

Discaya told Julius that she bought the car because she liked the umbrellas built into the doors – a feature designed into Rolls Royce cars for many years now reportedly because it often rains in her birthplace, London.

No, she wasn’t born to British royalty, but to two overseas Filipino workers. According to write-ups about Discaya, her mother worked as a chambermaid and her father as a waiter in the same hotel in London, the city where Sarah finished basic education.

But she took up business administration in the Philippines – first at La Consolacion College, and then at the Pasig Catholic College where she obtained her bachelor’s degree and where she must have met her husband Curlee.

According to interviews Discaya gave when she was preparing to run for mayor of Pasig City, she started out as a receptionist, working her way up the corporate ladder until she became the chief financial officer and marketing manager of several construction firms.

That’s an impressive feat for a woman who rose from humble origins – a narrative she cultivated in her bid to enter politics. Her husband, who owns Pasig-based St. Gerrard Construction General Contractor Development Corp., is described as a philanthropist and entrepreneur.

Did they get to where they are, with P30 billion in flood control contracts alone and 40 luxury cars in their building parking lot, through outstanding business acumen, or by dealing with crooks in government?

Seeing people buying a Rolls Royce for the cute umbrella can be galling for people like me who, when their only car is rammed head-on by a kamote driver asleep at the wheel, must scrounge around from kind souls for a temporary replacement. Maybe we’re too stupid to get rich, as the late Joker Arroyo once ribbed his buddy Rene Saguisag, who took pride in his modest lifestyle.

Why is it that many people who join the government, or bag contracts or provide services to public officials, see their wealth soar forthwith? How do they get rich so quickly while the overwhelming majority remain poor?

Consider the wealth trajectory of folks like carinderia owner-turned-billionaire Janet Lim Napoles, and the Dargani siblings of Pharmally Pharmaceuticals infamy, who had a predilection for Porsches, Lamborghinis and Lexus.

And along this line, people are asking: what’s with the obsession with Hermes? It’s giving a bad name to the French ultra-lux brand, which prides itself in being “a house of artisans and human values.” Surely the human value isn’t anchored on the idea that one can never be too rich.

For that matter, why would anyone need over 200 pairs of designer sneakers, each costing thousands of dollars? OK, because they can afford it. But do they have to flaunt it?

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Discaya and her husband have drawn national attention after construction firms linked to them – Alpha & Omega Gen. Contractor and Development Corp. and St. Timothy Construction Corp. – ranked second and third on the list of 15 that President Marcos released last week. The Discayas admit owning Alpha & Omega, but claim they divested from St. Timothy in 2017.

Reelected Pasig Mayor Vico Sotto, who beat Sarah Discaya last May, links the couple to nine contractors / construction firms. Between 2022 and 2025, the firms have reportedly bagged 403 flood control contracts with project costs amounting to nearly P30 billion.

During the campaign, Discaya detailed her priorities in case she won, all of which involved (what else) construction projects.

Although BBM stressed that he was not accusing anybody of wrongdoing, he said the 15 contractors cornered the lion’s share of flood control projects nationwide in the past three years.

Last Friday in Calumpit, Bulacan, BBM shone the spotlight on St. Timothy when he inspected one of its flood control projects whose concrete embankment, he noted, was crumbling. Looking on rather glumly was Bulacan Gov. Daniel Fernando and other officials of the province.

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Sen. Panfilo Lacson has said he is picking up a lot of useful tips from the sumbongsapangulo.ph website launched last week by BBM, where people can upload tips and complaints anonymously.

One such complaint uploaded on the website involves the construction of a flood control structure and tributaries along Culiat Creek in Quezon City, an area that suffered from extreme flooding at the start of the monsoon season this year. The residents blamed this on the creek that was supposed to be dredged. They say that the creek bed was instead paved with concrete, making the waterway shallower, and concrete retaining walls were constructed.

For that narrow waterway, the complaint pointed out, the contract was awarded to two different companies: Tuchar Construction Corp. for the right side, costing P44.1 million and reported completed on Jan. 3, 2023, and El Anolin Construction for the left (cost, P42,768,180; completed Dec. 12, 2022).

You wonder how the two companies divided the work for the creek bed.

A resident who was forced to wade in the flood – or more accurately, swim because the water had rapidly risen nearly to the second floor of their house – later landed in the hospital for leptospirosis.

Others have not been as lucky; 24 deaths due to leptospirosis have been recorded this month alone in Quezon City.

Across the country, many others have died due directly to floods – swept away by rampaging waters or buried in mudslides.

That is the cost of corruption. The fortunes of many families in this country are built on the backs of public misery.