After Iloilo flyover failures, UTCP keeps winning gov’t contracts

By Rjay Zuriaga Castor

Two flyovers in Iloilo are sinking, hundreds of millions in public funds have been spent on costly repairs — but the firm behind the flawed designs, United Technologies Consolidated Partnership (UTCP), continues to secure government contracts.

UTCP, a Pasig-based engineering consultancy, has been repeatedly tapped by the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) for high-stakes public infrastructure projects that require specialized geotechnical and structural expertise.

Yet several of the firm’s flagship designs have been associated with major structural anomalies, most notably the Ungka and Aganan flyovers in Pavia, Iloilo.

The two flyovers have become emblematic of these failures, with excessive settlement, foundation depth discrepancies, and prolonged construction delays that disrupted traffic and stalled regional development.

Despite these documented problems, UTCP has remained eligible for government contracts, a situation that watchdogs and local officials say exposes gaps in the government’s procurement and accountability mechanisms.

“I have to investigate what they did […] We will investigate, but if they are repeatedly giving us faulty designs, they need to be sanctioned for that, and one of the sanctions is possible blacklisting. But let’s wait for the investigation results,” DPWH Secretary Vince Dizon told the Iloilo media.

Following investigations by the DPWH, Dizon said the problems affecting both flyovers were caused by “flawed design and execution.”

The DPWH Bureau of Design contracted UTCP for the structural design and soil investigations of the two flyovers. IBC International Builders Corporation, the contractor for both projects, subsequently implemented these designs.

Iloilo Governor Arthur Defensor Jr. said accountability should be pursued regardless of whether the projects are eventually completed.

“It’s not high time for it (UTCP) to be blacklisted, it should be blacklisted already,” Defensor said. “That is the first step if there is a problem with the contractor. There are investigations pending and people should be held liable there.”

Under Republic Act No. 9184, or the Government Procurement Reform Act, the DPWH has the authority to suspend or blacklist consultants who fail to meet professional standards or whose actions result in significant project delays or losses.

To date, however, while criminal and administrative charges have been filed against senior DPWH-6 officials and the contractor IBC, no criminal or civil court cases have been formally filed against UTCP.

In September 2025, Senator Raffy Tulfo directed the DPWH to impose liquidated damages on UTCP in connection with the Aganan Flyover. He also urged stricter background checks on contractors and consultancy firms before awarding government projects.

Contracts continue despite anomalies 

Since 2010, UTCP has accumulated 50 consulting contracts worth approximately PHP1.6 billion, spanning feasibility studies, detailed engineering design, quality assurance, traffic impact assessments, and special studies.

 

The sheer volume and continuity of these contracts over 15 years point to UTCP being a long-term, system-embedded consultant rather than a peripheral bidder. Its work cuts across Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao, including high-value national projects and regionally strategic road networks.

The controversies in the Iloilo flyovers did not disrupt UTCP’s access to government work.

 

Eight contracts worth around PHP83 million were awarded after 2022, distributed across four DPWH offices, including: Central Office, Region IV-A, Region II, and Region XI.

These post-anomaly contracts cover feasibility and pre-feasibility studies, socio-economic surveys, traffic data gathering, and large multi-project DED packages—roles that directly influence future infrastructure decisions and public spending.

Iloilo’s flyover crisis

The PHP680-million Ungka Flyover was designed to improve connectivity between Iloilo City and the Iloilo International Airport. The project was heralded as a major achievement until its full opening on September 5, 2022. Within two weeks of operation, the structure exhibited signs of severe vertical displacement.

The “vertical displacement,” or settlement, of the flyover was immediately characterized as excessive by independent structural experts.

The DPWH-6 has since explained that the mechanism of failure at the Ungka Flyover is tied to the soil-structure interaction, suggesting that UTCP’s initial soil investigation underestimated the depth and compressibility of underlying soil layers.

After extensive retrofitting and stabilization works, the Ungka Flyover fully reopened to traffic on December 23, 2024.

The Aganan Flyover, a P802-million project located only one kilometer from Ungka, presents a different but related anomaly. Construction reached 70% completion before it was halted in late 2022 due to concerns over structural safety.

The core controversy involves a discrepancy between the foundation depth in UTCP’s design and the actual depth required to reach stable soil as determined by the DPWH.

The DPWH-6 argued that the confirmatory and seismic testing it conducted showed that the Aganan foundations needed to reach a depth of 54 meters to find a stable bearing layer. However, the structural design provided by UTCP had set the foundation depth at only 22 to 28.5 meters.

To complete the long-stalled project, the DPWH this year has allocated an additional PHP229 million for jet grouting and other stabilization measures. A foreign third-party consultant will also be engaged to validate the revised design before construction resumes. Completion is now targeted before the end of 2026.

For Bayan Panay, however, finishing the flyover is not enough.

The progressive group has called for a full, independent, and transparent investigation covering the project’s planning, design, procurement, and construction phases.

“Contractors, engineers, consultants and approving officials found responsible for negligence, corruption or gross incompetence must be held criminally, administratively and financially liable,” it said.

A pattern beyond Iloilo

The Ungka and Aganan cases are not isolated.

UTCP was also involved in the early design stages of the Cabagan–Santa Maria Bridge in Isabela, a PHP1.225-billion project that partially collapsed on February 27, 2025, injuring six people when a 102-ton truck crossed the structure.

UTCP, together with Perth Consult International and Schema Engineers, participated in the project’s feasibility and preliminary design beginning in 2012. UTCP later took the lead on the bridge’s tied-arch structural design.

President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. attributed the failure to a “design flaw,” although project engineers blamed overloading.

What remains consistent across the Cabagan bridge, the Ungka Flyover, and the Aganan Flyover is the pattern: consultants design, failures happen, costly fixes are charged to the public, and future contracts go unaffected.

For Ilonggos, true justice and accountability will remain out of reach until someone is held criminally, administratively, or financially responsible — until then, the cycle will continue.