Genesis88 Construction Inc.—the sole firm that secured close to P1.9 billion in Davao City flood control work—now sits at the center of an NBI inquiry, with its owner flagged as a longstanding associate of the Duterte family. NBI Director Melvin Matibag disclosed the bureau’s scrutiny of the company on Tuesday, adding that Rep. Paolo Duterte himself could be called in should investigators decide his account is needed on how the contracts were handed out.
The contracts trace back to DPWH records covering Duterte’s district. Those same documents, according to Matibag, show a portion of the work beginning in 2024 without ever reaching completion. He was careful to draw a line short of any accusation, stressing that no conclusion about impropriety had been reached while the evidence remains under review. “What we are looking at is the evidence. We are still examining the documents,” he said.
Matibag pushed back on the congressman’s characterization of the probe as built on rumor. “This is not gossip because he himself said that the P1.9 billion came from the DPWH. The DPWH is where the information came from,” he said, pointing out that Duterte had cited the agency’s figures himself.
The director framed the exercise as one that cuts both ways. An investigation, he argued, exists as much to absolve the blameless as to pin down the guilty. “He should actually be happy with our initiative because the purpose of every investigation is not only to file cases, but also to exonerate,” Matibag said. By his telling, Duterte’s anger caught him off guard—particularly the reaction to the observation that a single builder had walked away with the entire P1.9-billion slate of projects.
That reaction followed an earlier plea from Duterte, who urged Matibag to keep the matter from turning personal and to train the inquiry on the substance: whether the projects were padded, kicked back, built below standard, or never delivered at all. For now, Matibag says the bureau intends to keep working through the paper trail before it reaches any verdict on the deals or the individuals behind them.
