Impossible to fix Sunwest’s defective P289.4-M dike project – Dizon

MANILA, Philippines — The allegedly substandard P289.4 million road dike project in Naujan, Oriental Mindoro—which served as the basis for the graft case pending against former Ako Bicol Rep. Zaldy Co and other Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) officials in the Sandiganbayan Fifth Division—would be impossible to fix.

This was the opinion of Public Works Secretary Vince Dizon when he testified in Co’s case before the antigraft court on Wednesday.

Dizon was asked by Henecito Balasolia, counsel of former DPWH Region-4B head of quality assurance and hydrology division Dennis Abagon, if construction company Sunwest Inc., which was cofounded by Co, could fix the project defect at no cost to the government.

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The DPWH chief said yes, but added that this was only “correct in normal circumstances,” prompting Prosecutor Peter Boco to ask him to elaborate.

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READ: Damaged protection dike in Mindoro puts Naujan residents at risk

“Upon our investigation, the SSPs [steel sheet piles] were only three meters—only one-fourth [of the 12-meter] length required to ensure stability. Clearly, we could not just ask for rectification,” Dizon explained.

“Rectification would mean destroying the project and replacing every sheet pile. Again, that is the context of the phrase, ‘correct under normal circumstances,’” he added. Dizon personally inspected the project in Naujan town in September 2025.

Dizon told the court that he personally measured one of the SSPs, which was only three meters long, far from the 12-meter length specified for the dike.

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According to him, Oriental Mindoro Gov. Humerlito “Bonz” Dolor showed him parts of the road dike that were already damaged due to heavy rains several weeks before his visit.

“For me, the evidence is really clear in this case,” Dizon said in an interview after his testimony, adding that it would be “really impossible” to fix the project.

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“For them to change the three-meter sheet pile, they would have to destroy the entire structure they made, right?” he said.

Serious structural defect

The graft case against Co stemmed from the Sunwest Inc. project which state prosecutors said was found to have serious structural deficiencies.

“It was really obvious that they messed it [project] up,” Dizon said after his court appearance. “Whatever it takes to truly prove the guilt of those charged, including former congressman Zaldy Co, we will do it,” he added.

Dizon already testified in the malversation case against Co last January.

The former party list representative served as the chair of the powerful House committee on appropriations in the 19th Congress. He went on medical leave in July 2025, supposedly to undergo a procedure in the US.

But after he was linked to alleged questionable insertions in the 2025 national budget and the flood control controversy, he refused to come home until he resigned as a House member in September that same year.

Co, who has yet to be spotted by Philippine authorities since then, was earlier declared by the Sandiganbayan as a fugitive from justice, preventing him from participating in his graft and malversation cases in the country.

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In addition, he is unable to seek any judicial relief unless he surrenders voluntarily. /cb