Confession of a highwayman

Philippine Daily Inquirer/Opinion/by Ma. Ceres P. Doyo

THE MURDER A FEW DAYS AGO OF HIGHWAYS contractor Wilfredo “Boy” Mayor (2005 jueteng whistleblower) by what appeared to be hired hit men gave rise to speculations about what he might have known about shady deals in the domain of public works. The assassins pumped 22 bullets into Mayor’s Volvo 850. He had just come from the casino.

Those who know Mayor say the murder may not be connected with his jueteng past but with his foray into contracting and getting in the way of those who coveted juicy projects.

I don’t know Mayor from Adam. I have no idea who did him in. What I know is that public works is a messy, shady field which the weak of stomach would fear to tread.

Years ago, I sat down with a highway engineer whose construction firm was among those that regularly bid for huge government projects. He agreed to be interviewed for our Sunday magazine issue on corruption.

Caught in the web of corruption that plagued government infrastructure projects, the engineer admitted to brazen participation in the evil system but wished he didn’t and had a choice.

[highwayman n: a person who robs travelers on a road]

The engineer didn’t rob but he was a member of the cast of characters in the highway robbery that went on in the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH). I don’t remember his face, his name. And if he’s reading this, I hope he could tell us how things have changed. His confession might be dated but this is what he said at that time:

The DPWH is a perfectly departmentalized system of corruption. Every office or department where your paper passes is well set up to milk you. There are two types of milkmen in the department: the garapal (crude) and the Mr. Clean types. The garapals make a killing by dealing with contractors directly. The Mr. Clean types are SOBs who use their subordinates for the dirty job.

In the prequalification stage before the bidding, people in the department will find ways to disqualify you. These are among the most corrupt. They check on your financial state, equipment capability, engineering capacity and experience. Then they try to find fault, waiting for you to pay your way through them. These people are underpaid.

There are rigged bids. People in the department sell estimates to bidders. There is no way for me but to participate in the scheme. If there are five of us bidding, I talk to the other four to sell their bids to me. Then I call for the estimator to give me an estimate. I jack up my bid by five percent, but my bid would still be the lowest because I have already bought the other four bidders.

That five percent jack-up is the milk that will be divided into five and distributed among the four “losing” bidders and the estimator. See, the five of them earned money without having to do actual construction work. I am the one who will do the actual work.

I want to play Mr. Clean but how can I? They’ll steal some of your papers and give you a rough time to slow you down.

There is also what you call a “price escalation committee.”

It takes time for us to collect. Our receivables are sitting on the desks. A lot of our money goes out, just so we can collect. I still have collectibles and they’re being withheld. They think they’re hurting me. They’re hurting the small people.

How do we start to clean up the system? If I were the one to do it I would get people inside who are also SOBs but who would put in a good performance. No use putting a good guy who is bookish and is just trying to learn the system. The department has to be professionalized, employees have to be given good salaries. That means spending more, but in the end government will profit from it, as there will be less stealing of money that is supposed to go to the government. I really wish contractors would get contracts at the right price. No rigging.

As it is, indirectly, the government is losing from all these shady deals. Money goes to the people who get it in the form of kickbacks. The government loses, we, the contractors also lose.

Oh yes, I’ve personally delivered as much as P5 million—cold cash—in one blow. You don’t fool around exposing anyone here, no marked bills. There’s some kind of code of honor here. You break that and you’re finished. Maraming onsehan, marami ring nababaril.

How do all these come out in my books? Ah, I will not tell you. In this business there are three types: the rich, the stupid and those who refuse to make money

.

I’ve done a lot of big projects for the government: roads, bridges, dams. I can tell you that I delivered well. There are those who will not worry tomorrow about the inferior roads they built. I think those crooks should be killed.

Preparing for a project entails a lot of work. You have to check the project requirements, determine the area of work, do the design, check the budget. You also have to make surveys of your own to find out where projects will be put up. I also had to pay my way through in my rural projects. I had to give to the New People’s Army. By the time I am awarded the project, I have already spent a million. The trick here is to disqualify other bidding contractors. I know how to do that.

I have shared a project with a close relative of Imelda Marcos. They would always watch me. I’m tuso (clever), they said. That guy told me, hati tayo o ibubulgar ko (let’s half or I’ll expose you). I subcontracted for him.

You cannot eliminate all these practices if people are not paid properly. They get themselves paid some other way. Makikita mo naman kung sino ang magnanakaw, you’ll know who are the cheaters. Yung ibang empleyado diyan, pasigasigarilyo na lang, Salem pa. (Some of them just smoke, and Salem, mind you.)