A contractor turned state witness has told a Philippine anti-corruption court that she was recruited into a multi-billion-peso kickback scheme involving ghost flood control projects — and that the operation was already running under former president Rodrigo Duterte before expanding further under the current administration.
Sally Santos, owner of SYMS Construction Trading, testified at a bail hearing at the Sandiganbayan that a Department of Public Works and Highways engineer named Brice Hernandez first approached her in 2017, urging her to register a company that could be folded into a network of compliant contractors. SYMS Construction was formally established in 2019 and went on to secure 157 government projects worth a combined P1.8 billion (Dh112 million). Santos said she personally pocketed P86 million (Dh5.37 million) over four years before authorities uncovered the scheme.
The mechanics of the arrangement were straightforward. Santos testified that SYMS Construction would win project awards without performing the corresponding work — surrendering 42 projects outright to Hernandez, and lending its contractor’s licence to other individuals for the remaining 113. In only 10 percent of the 115 projects her company nominally held did she carry out any actual construction.
When payments were released, Santos said she withdrew the funds from a government bank, kept her share, and delivered the rest to Hernandez in boxes — in cash, which he received personally. She said DPWH officials consistently told her that “everything was in order.”
Hernandez, meanwhile, has sought state witness status of his own. He has acknowledged billions of pesos flowing through his bank accounts and has already returned P100 million (Dh6.25 million) in restitution, along with luxury vehicles collectively valued at P50 million (Dh3.12 million). His government salary as an assistant engineer was P70,000 (Dh4,375) a month.
The hearing where Santos gave testimony was connected to the case of former senator Bong Revilla, who stands accused of profiting from a ghost flood control project in Bulacan province. Revilla is currently the only senior politician to have been arrested in connection with the scandal.
Auditors at the Commission on Audit had flagged suspicious irregularities as early as 2017. Subsequent investigations identified 421 ghost projects across the country spanning 2018 to 2024, some of them recorded as 95 percent complete within just 21 days. The schemes stretched from Cagayan in the north to Davao City in the south.
A former contractor who spoke separately to Khaleej Times described a system under the Duterte administration in which project awards were not won through genuine bidding. “Instead of actual bidding, we flew down to Davao City to ask for projects. They would take their 30 per cent cut immediately,” the source said, referring to a circle known informally as the “Davao Boys.” He added: “I couldn’t believe the rapacity of the so-called Davao Boys then. It turned out that it continued under the Marcos government without missing a beat.” The contractor has since exited the industry and sold off his equipment. “I could not complete my projects without cutting corners,” he said.
Former congressman Elizaldy Co, now a fugitive, has released several videos in which he claims to have facilitated the insertion of hundreds of billions of pesos worth of projects into the national budget. Co has further alleged that President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. personally directed kickback deliveries to officials close to him, and that at least P1 billion was set aside for Marcos himself — a claim the Malacañang Palace has flatly denied.
The Marcos administration concluded its own review of the flood control anomalies on March 31 through the Independent Commission on Infrastructures, which recommended the prosecution of named contractors and officials. Critics have described the outcome as falling well short of genuine accountability. Last year, at least 266 Filipinos drowned during extreme weather events, including floods linked to substandard or non-existent flood control infrastructure.
