Senate Pres. Chiz Escudero Denies Helping Contractor Win Flood Control Projects
CHIZ ESCUDERO – The Senate President admitted receiving a P30 million campaign donation from one of the flood control project contractors cited by President Bongbong Marcos.
During the 4th State of the Nation Address of Pres. Bongbong Marcos, he admitted that several flood control projects in the Philippines failed. The country recently faced the impact of the Southwest Monsoon and tropical storms Crising, Dante, and Emong.
Senator Alan Peter Cayetano even noticed Pres. Marcos’ remarks on the flood control projects and claimed that it is the first time that he heard that a flood control project was the reason for the flooding. The Chief Executive claimed he personally went to check on some of the flood control projects and saw the failure.
Recently, Pres. Bongbong Marcos also revealed that the government has spent over P500 billion for the flood control projects since July 2022 until May 2025. According to him, most of these flood control projects were done in the National Capital Region (NCR) with 1,058 projects worth P52.57 billion.
Marcos Jr. also revealed that 1,617 projects worth P98.01 billion were done in Region III while 866 projects worth P49.61 billion were done in Region V. The President stressed that the government has a huge spending on the flood control projects.
“The total cost of all of the projects since July 2022 until today is P545 billion. I don’t know about you but that is a very big number, by any measure that is an enormous number,” he said.
Recently, Pres. Bongbong Marcos also announced that 15 contractors got 20% of the P545-billion flood control projects of the government. He named the following:
- Legacy Construction Corporation
- Alpha & Omega Gen. Contractor & Development Corp.
- St. Timothy Construction Corporation
- QM Builders
- EGB Construction Corporation
- Topnotch Catalyst Builders Inc.
- Centerways Construction and Development Inc.
- Sunwest, Inc.
- Hi-Tone Construction & Development Corp.
- Triple 8 Construction & Supply, Inc.
- Royal Crown Monarch Construction & Supplies Corp.
- Wawao Builders
- MG Samidan Construction
- L.R. Tiqui Builders, Inc.
- Road Edge Trading & Development Services
Marcos Jr. assured that his administration will look into possible links of the contractors with some government officials. Recently, based on a report on Inquirer, Senate Pres. Chiz Escudero admitted receiving a P30-million campaign donation from one of the mentioned contractors in 2022.
Based on the report, Senate Pres. Chiz Escudero claimed that the Centerways Construction donated P30 million for his 2022 election campaign. On the other side, he denied helping the firm secure the flood control projects of the government.
The Senate President also denied being a business partner of the said flood control project contractor. According to him, the firm owner is his long-time friend and is from Sorsogon.
“That’s the same innuendo and insinuation that’s always being attached and said just because someone contributed or gave. He has long been my friend and acquaintance, and he has genuinely helped us—even long before this became an issue—and he’s really from Sorsogon,” he said.
Based on the report, when asked if he has helped the Centerways Construction get more government deals when he was already a senator, Senate Pres. Chiz Escudero responded that the firm got more projects when he was not yet part of the upper chamber.
“The bigger amount he got was when I wasn’t here. I wasn’t here then. I am not part of his business. Again, that’s the innuendo and insinuation being floated and propagated,” he said.
Previously, Pres. Bongbong Marcos claimed that five (5) contractors were awarded with flood control projects in almost all regions in the country and his admin will investigate them.