BEFORE the national flood control corruption scandal, there was the P1.3-billion “Design and Build: Flood Control System (Construction of Drainage Mains)” of the Cebu City government. More than five years after the contract was awarded and signed, and a P199-million mobilization fee was released to the contractor, there is nothing to show for it.
The transaction “was riddled with various deficiencies,” and the “flaws have compromised the interest of the city government and the public in general, in both social and economic aspects,” the Commission on Audit concluded in its 2022 audit. Specifically, the project, which was supposed to have been completed by November 2022, “would have been very timely by then to mitigate flood damage, flood risk and improve climate resilience brought about by the impact of flooding that is now frequently taking place in the city.”
The official terms of reference (TOR), prepared by then OIC city engineer Lowell Corminal in late 2020, described the situation in the areas of the city where the drainage mains would be located as prone to “intense” flooding, “horrific,” “excessive” inundation that “terribly” affects commuters. To “address the perpetual concern of flooding, [the Cebu city government] will initiate and implement immediately the construction of drainage mains (...).” The drainage mains would “act as the main catchment and main drainage artery, receiving rainwater from ancillary drainage lines,” the TOR went on. To prevent a “terrible traffic situation” that deep excavations and cast-in-place structures would cause, an “advanced construction technology” would be adopted. The mayor was going to address the flooding with “utmost priority” and “speed and efficiency.”
As with many other contracts entered into by the city in the years 2020 and 2021, the contract between the Cebu City government and A.M. Oreta was signed by then city administrator, lawyer Floro Casas Jr. “as authorized by” Mayor Labella. Cebu-based Melvin B. Caidet signed for Oreta. Mr. Caidet is referred to simply as “representative.”
Utmost priority, speed and efficiency notwithstanding, not only was the project never implemented — not by A.M. Oreta, not by another contractor — the P199-million advance payment or mobilization fee was not recovered despite COA’s repeated recommendations and eventual notice of disallowance. The matter was discussed in an executive session of the Cebu City council last Aug. 11. Here it was disclosed that the engineer Corminal, who is still employed by the city government, was having his salary withheld, supposedly to recover the P199 million (MyTV Cebu, Aug. 14, 2026). According to news reports, Corminal in 2025 recommended to the city legal officer to sue A.M. Oreta to compel the company to return the mobilization fee, as COA had officially disallowed the payment.
But did Corminal cause the release of the P199 million? Hardly. Did he benefit from it? Unlikely. Withholding his pay seems disproportionate to the issue at hand. The mayor who thought to address Cebu City’s flooding with “speed and efficiency” passed away while the contract was still in effect. Former city administrator Casas is no longer employed by the city. Caidet had the power to sign a P1.3-billion flood control contract on behalf of a prominent 80-year-old Manila-based contractor but was he even an employee of the company?
Cebu City Councilor Alvin Arcilla, who again brought up the issue of recovering the P199 million advance payment, has now suggested that only Cebu-based contractors would be allowed to bid for Cebu City projects. “They would be less likely to do something wrong because they are from Cebu,” the councilor argued (CDN Digital, Aug. 15, 2026). Of course, that argument may not hold completely, as some local contractors have been linked to questionable infrastructure projects in Cebu.
A.M. Oreta & Co., while not very well known to the Cebuano public, implemented at least three nationally funded flood control/mitigation projects in Cebu City between 2017 and 2022, the most recent along Butuanon River, which was executed through a joint venture with a Cebu-based contractor from October 2021 to June 2022. A flood mitigation project was implemented in Balamban, Cebu, around the same time, also with a local contractor.
The Office of the Ombudsman has initiated an investigation into P60 billion worth of flood control projects across Cebu province in the past six years. This is part of the wider investigations at the national level into substandard and ghost projects. Ombudsman Jesus Crispin Remulla, however, has emphasized that nobody is going to be sued or jailed without the proper evidence.
In the case of Cebu City’s P1.3-billion Design and Build: Flood Control Systems project awarded to A.M. Oreta & Co. in April 2021 with a P199-million advance payment released in June 2021, with nothing — not even the design — to show more than five years later, the evidence is staring us in the face. COA has documented the most glaring deficiencies. The advance payment must be recovered and responsibility for the massive flood control fiasco must be placed.
