In late October, Public Works Secretary Vince Dizon announced that his department had filed malversation and graft charges against 21 department officials over flood control projects in La Union and Davao Occidental worth a total of P276 million. The names of the 21 officials were not provided, but two contractors were also charged. That is where curiosity begins.
The Davao Occidental project was fully paid but never initiated. The ghost project was worth P96.5 million. The contractor was St. Timothy Construction owned by Curlee and Sarah Discaya.
The La Union project was, in the words of Dizon, a substandard project of two flood control projects. It was also fully paid but never completed, costing P89.7 million each. The contractor was Silverwolves Construction.
The connections and the possible influences both contracts prompted are worthy of public interest, and eventually by the courts.
Davao Occidental is a new province carved out from Davao del Sur’s 2nd congressional district in 2013. The reason given was the “slow pace of economic development” because of its great distance from the provincial capital of Digos, articulated by its Senate sponsor Ferdinand Marcos Jr.
In many cases of creating new provinces in the Philippines however, the dots connect to gerrymandering, the manipulation of an electoral constituency’s boundaries so as to favor one political group. It was widely known that the dominant political group in Davao del Sur was the Cagas dynasty. The opposition Bautista dynasty was no match to the Cagas dominance. Separation was the only way.
True enough, less than 15 years later, Davao Occidental is ruled today by only one political family, the Bautistas, from the province’s governorship to its lone congressional district, and the mayorship of the capital town Malita, plus a party list for PUV drivers.
The Bautistas are open supporters of the Dutertes. For example, both Claude Bautista and his daughter Claudine Diana Bautista Lim voted against the impeachment of Sara Duterte in February 2025.
Claude Bautista, the former first governor of Davao Occidental, is today its lone representative in Congress, succeeding his sister Lorna Bautista Bandigan. The present governor is their brother Franklin Bautista, the former first provincial vice governor. Davao Occidental is a family affair province like Davao del Sur.
Claude Bautista was one of Sara Duterte’s two campaign managers in 2022. His daughter Claudine Diana Bautista Lim is party list representative of DUMPER (Drivers United for Mass Progress and Equal Rights). If she rings a bell, readers may recall that the PUV drivers’ representative had a grand wedding in expensive Balesin Island in August 2021 to Jose French Lim IV.
That was their second wedding ceremony. In January 2021, they exchanged civil marriage vows officiated by Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte Carpio, daughter of Rodrigo Duterte. There is no doubt – the Bautistas are “open supporters” of the Dutertes.
The groom Lim (known thereabouts in Davao City as Tracker) and his father Jose A. Lim III, are very close family friends of Rodrigo Duterte. That is public knowledge in Davao City. However, certain affidavits submitted to the International Criminal Court in The Hague about extrajudicial killings in the city say the Duterte-Lim friendship is more than social.
In the ongoing Philippine flood control scandal, a percentage of funds, described in some testimonies as up to 30% (or 25-30%), is the norm for kickbacks or commissions for politicians and involved parties. In many cases, the mastermind is the politician, not the district engineers and contractors.
In the Davao Occidental ghost project personally inspected by Dizon and which was worth P96.5 million, 30% would be in the amount of P28,950,000. Did the investigation cover the local politicians? Were their bank transactions examined? Those are questions of critical public interest.
Last October 23, Ombudsman Jesus Crispin Remulla announced that the Ombudsman is investigating Claude Bautista for allegedly being the beneficial owner of another construction firm linked to projects in Davao Occidental. This is a step in the right direction.
Equally worth looking into is the La Union project’s contractor. Silverwolves holds office at Abra Asphalt Compound, Mudeng, La Paz, Abra.
What is the problem with this contractor, aside from the fact that the two projects were unfinished despite being fully paid? Ombudsman Remulla believes the person of interest here is Benguet congressman Eric Yap. Remulla believes the beneficial owner of Silverwolves is Yap, who had divested from it a few years ago. However, both Remulla and Dizon believe Yap is still its beneficial owner. If proven true, this constitutes conflict of interest punishable under Republic Act 3019.
According to the Anti-Money Laundering Council records, the Discaya couple had remitted a huge payment to Edvic Yap, the present party list congressman of ACT-CIS. The brother Eric was also ACT-CIS party list representative before he became Benguet congressman.
Aside from Edvic Yap, Sen. Raffy Tulfo’s wife Jocelyn also sits as ACT-CIS representative. The other senator Tulfo, Erwin, was also ACT-CIS congressman from 2023 to 2025. The Tulfo dynasty had better scramble themselves away from this party list fast. Truth telling is their only way right now.
The pattern here is similar to the Davao Occidental situation. The Yaps are known to be very close allies of the Duterte family. Eric Yap was a virtual unknown in the Philippine political world. He was first elected for ACT-CIS in May 2019. Less than a year later in March 2020, he was no longer a neophyte. He became chair of the powerful House Committee on Appropriations (jurisdiction: national government expenditures) when the speaker was Alan Peter Cayetano and the president was Rodrigo Duterte, the father of his bosom buddy Paolo Duterte.
There is no need to ask why Eric Yap was suddenly catapulted into a very sensitive House standing committee position.
Silverwolves also bagged many other flood control projects in Luzon. Is it because it benefited from the anomalies?
Perhaps the most basic valid question we can ask from these Davao Occidental and La Union projects is this: What role do these Duterte supporters play in the corruption mess? Apologists can argue that this may be incidental, unintentional, unwitting.
But here’s the crux: were these politicians investigated for corruption under the Duterte administration? There the answer is clear as day – No.
The views in this column are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of VERA Files.
