New Ombudsman complaints hit PHP 670-M Antique road projects

By Rjay Zuriaga Castor and Juliane Judilla

ILOILO CITY – Government officials and contractors behind three Department of Public Works and Highways projects in Antique worth a combined PHP 670.1 million are facing new criminal and administrative complaints over alleged violations of environmental, procurement, and other government requirements.

The complaints were filed on Friday, Aug. 7, before the Office of the Ombudsman-Visayas in Iloilo City by Amlig Antique, an alliance of civil society and people’s organizations, together with the citizens’ watchdog group Kahublagan Kontra Kurapsyon.

They add to five criminal and administrative complaints lodged before the same office on July 16, 2026, bringing the alliance’s total to eight.

The respondents include officials of DPWH 6 and the Antique District Engineering Office, the Department of Environment and Natural Resources and Environmental Management Bureau 6, local officials of San Jose de Buenavista, and executives and board members of A.M. Oreta & Co., Allencon Development Corp., and International Builders Inc.

Uswag Ilonggo Party-list Rep. James “Jojo” Ang Jr., identified in the complaint as a former authorized managing officer of the A.M. Oreta & Co./Allencon Development Corp. joint venture, was also named as a respondent.

Daily Guardian has reached out to and is awaiting the comments of the concerned offices and individuals.

The three complaints cover the PHP 349.8-million Panay East-West Road (Project ID 17G00068), the PHP 204.5-million San Jose Coastal Road/Seawall/Esplanade (Project ID 18G00073), and the PHP 115.8-million Pandan-Ibajay Road (Project ID 22G00126).

The Panay East-West Road and San Jose Coastal Road projects were awarded to the A.M. Oreta/Allencon joint venture, while the Pandan-Ibajay Road was undertaken by International Builders Inc.

The complaints share a common allegation: that infrastructure projects in environmentally sensitive areas were implemented despite deficiencies in required studies, permits, environmental clearances, and other legal prerequisites.

Under Presidential Decree 1586, projects classified as environmentally critical or located within environmentally critical areas must secure an Environmental Compliance Certificate before implementation.

Republic Act 9184, the Government Procurement Reform Act, separately prohibits the splitting of contracts to evade approval thresholds or competitive bidding requirements.

Panay East-West Road

The first complaint alleges that the project, a segment of the Panay East-West Road in Valderrama, was implemented despite deficiencies involving its environmental clearance, feasibility study, and other project prerequisites.

The complainants say the project proceeded without a feasibility study, forestland permits, local government endorsements, or documented geohazard assessments.

They allege that the Environmental Compliance Certificate was issued only two years after construction had begun and was later revoked on Oct. 17, 2025, following the documentation of what they described as severe environmental damage.

The complainants’ broader theory is that the Panay East-West Road was an integrated mountain-road program but was divided into several contracts, allegedly allowing individual projects to be processed separately instead of being evaluated as one larger undertaking.

The complaint also questions the timing and validity of the project’s environmental clearance and alleges that public funds were disbursed despite the absence of mandatory requirements.

The project is part of the broader infrastructure programs that the complainants say should be subjected to a comprehensive review for possible procurement, environmental, and auditing violations.

 

San Jose coastal road

The second complaint alleges that the San Jose Coastal Road and Seawall-Esplanade project was implemented without several required prerequisites, including an Environmental Compliance Certificate, foreshore authority, feasibility study, and local clearances.

It also alleges that the project was built on foreshore public land and within an Environmentally Critical Area, with potential impacts on marine habitats and coastal communities.

The complainants further allege that a feasibility study was conducted four years after the contract had already been awarded.

They allege that the larger San Jose Coastal Road/Seawall/Esplanade program was divided into about 23 contracts worth more than PHP 1.5 billion, and that nearly half of those contracts lacked valid environmental clearances.

The complainants are seeking a broader investigation and a special audit of the program.

Pandan-Ibajay Road

The third complaint centers on Phase 3 of the Pandan-Ibajay Road, covering Barangays Talisay and Perfecta in Pandan, Antique.

The complaint identifies the project as part of the larger Pandan-Ibajay Road program, which it says consists of interconnected contracts worth more than PHP 1.6 billion.

The complainants allege that the project traversed forestland and an Environmentally Critical Area and involved substantial slope cutting.

They allege that the works required the excavation of more than 535,000 cubic meters of soil but proceeded without feasibility studies, geohazard assessments, or local council approvals.

They also question the project’s compliance with environmental and forestland requirements, particularly the Gratuitous Special Use Permit.

According to the complaint, DPWH applied for a permit only in October 2025, roughly three years after the road was completed, covering approximately 5.372 hectares of forestland.

The complaint said the DENR-CENRO in Culasi issued a Cease and Desist Order on April 14, 2026, citing road construction affecting forestland without the required permit and observing unauthorized tree-cutting.

The complaint further alleges soil erosion, siltation, and damage to waterways and agricultural areas.

It also accuses the respondents of contract splitting, alleging that the broader Pandan-Ibajay Road program was divided into four existing contracts and two proposed contracts worth more than PHP 1.6 billion.

‘More cases will be filed’

Amlig Antique said the complaints are part of a continuing campaign to hold officials and contractors accountable for alleged irregularities in public infrastructure projects.

“This is not a legal exercise. This is a people’s uprising on paper—concrete, firm, and borne of genuine anger and deep distrust toward a government that spent billions of pesos on roads and seawalls in the mountains and coastlines of Antique without a single required environmental permit, without a feasibility study, and without asking the communities whose rivers, farmlands, and livelihoods paid the price,” the group said in a statement.

The group linked the complaints to the broader national controversy involving alleged ghost flood-control projects, inflated contracts, and misuse of public works funds.

“While that scandal plays out at the national level, the people of Antique have been living with its local face for years: flooded roads and farms, silted rivers and coral reefs, buried creeks, and communities that were never consulted, never compensated, and never told the truth,” it said.

Amlig said the latest complaints are “only the next step” and warned that more cases will be filed as additional evidence and information on other projects and officials are consolidated.

It also warned public officials, contractors, and corporate officers that future DPWH projects implemented without required environmental permits, feasibility studies, land-use clearances, local endorsements, and other legal prerequisites would face similar scrutiny and possible legal action.

“No official should assume that a new project, a new administration, or a new contract will erase the responsibility created by violating the law. Public funds do not place anyone above the law, and development does not excuse the destruction of Antique’s environment,” the group emphasized.

“The people of Antique are demanding that this system of impunity is never repeated,” it added.

Inday Loren’s ‘silence’

The group also criticized Sen. Loren Legarda, pointing to what it described as a stark contrast between the senator’s public image as an environmental advocate and her silence over what it called the worsening environmental degradation in Antique.

The complaints identify Legarda as the principal political figure behind the substantial increase in infrastructure funding for the province.

According to the group, Legarda secured and expanded funding for projects such as the Panay East-West Road and the San Jose Coastal Road during her terms as Senate Finance Committee chairperson, deputy speaker, and now senator, making Antique a major recipient of DPWH infrastructure allocations.

Despite securing funding for these projects, the group said Legarda has remained silent even as regulators issued Cease and Desist Orders, revoked Environmental Compliance Certificates, and identified the alleged absence of mandatory environmental permits in several multimillion-peso contracts.

Activists and local residents, the group said, have questioned what they describe as the irony of a globally recognized climate advocate remaining silent while infrastructure projects she supported allegedly resulted in deforestation, heavy siltation of rivers, and flooding of agricultural lands.

“The senator has built her public image on being the Philippines’ most prominent champion of climate action. Yet when the roads she championed bulldozed trees into creeks, buried rivers under silt, and flooded the farms of the communities she claims to serve, she said nothing,” the statement said.

The ‘real’ motive

Amlig also alleged that the three major road projects were designed primarily to provide access to prospective mining operations within the Central Panay Mountain Range rather than solely to improve transportation.

According to the group, the road alignments overlap with existing and pending mining exploration applications, posing risks to a critical watershed and biodiversity area that supports the four provinces of Panay.

The Central Panay Mountain Range straddles Antique, Iloilo, Capiz, and Aklan, and is among the last remaining tracts of low-elevation rainforest in the country.

The group said the issue extends beyond alleged irregularities in individual infrastructure projects and called for institutional reforms to ensure that future government infrastructure projects comply with environmental laws and public consultation requirements.

Amlig has urged the Office of the Ombudsman, the Commission on Audit, the Department of Environment and Natural Resources, and the Department of Budget and Management to investigate the projects, enforce environmental regulations, audit the use of public funds, and release all budget documents related to the three road programs.