[Inside the Newsroom] Exposing the Revilla flood control contracts — the easy part

Sam Calleja/Rappler

You know what’s the hard part? Read along.

AT A GLANCE

• For over 20 years, Princess Revilla's company, Graia Construction Corporation, has been rumored to receive contracts from the DPWH, particularly during the tenures of her father and brother in the Senate.
• The flood control scandal and subsequent investigative efforts by Rappler and journalist Axel Cainglet revealed substantial evidence of conflict of interest and corruption involving the Revilla family, leading to public outcry.
• Despite the exposure of corruption, there are concerns that voters continue to reelect corrupt officials, highlighting the ongoing challenge for journalists and citizens advocating for clean governance.

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For more than 20 years, it had been the talk not just in Cavite but in national political circles that the company of Princess Revilla (Rebecca Bautista-Ocampo) was getting contracts either from the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) or from contractors who were bagging projects from the agency. 

Her company, Graia Construction Corporation, was formed in 2003. That year, her father, Ramon Revilla Sr., was nearing the end of his final term as senator. He had been the longtime chairperson of the Senate committee on public works — a body that had a hand in shaping the budget of the DPWH. The following year, her brother Ramon “Bong” Revilla Jr. would be elected senator and “inherit” — yes, like a family property — the chairmanship. 

As I said, however, these things were only talked about in frustrated or disgusted whispers. (I’ll spare you the Tagalog expressions we had heard, but you can use your imagination.) 

Until the flood control scandal broke. 

Until the public realized how this newest form of corruption, difficult to detect before now, was perfected during the Duterte administration. 

Until Rappler called on citizens to help us verify the leads we had gotten or to give us new ones from their localities. 

Until Rappler started a series on “policontractors” and their relatives cornering projects in their fiefdoms, and Caviteños started asking: “Kelan ‘nyo iimbestigahan ang mga Revilla? (Followed by unpublishable words…)”

Until a curious and courageous campus journalist from the University of the Philippines Manila named Axel Cainglet took on the challenge, and once and for all looked for solid proof of what, for the longest time, was only “common knowledge” of conflict of interest (which is a crime), if not alleged full-blown corruption. 

Axel, news editor of The Manila Collegian, is under my mentorship in the current cycle of the Aries Rufo Journalism Fellowship. Quick to absorb instructions and understand contexts and relationships, he extracted from the DPWH portal almost a decade’s worth of contracts that Graia Construction got from the agency. He cross-tabulated them per city and town. 

Together, we plotted the contracts against a timeline of political events involving members of the Revilla clan who were in the legislature. And the result was this story, which was our most-read one, with impressive numbers, for a full day — from morning until late night: Bong Revilla’s sister bags almost P5-billion DPWH contract in family’s Cavite bailiwick. 

Instantly, Rappler got thank you messages from Caviteños, and most readers were commenting with variations of “What have we been talking about?” and “This has been going on for so long.” 

Thankfully, sources privy to the projects are offering us more information. Like they knew we will see this issue through. 

Providentially, when an ABS-CBN reporter asked the Ombudsman about Rappler’s findings (start at 6:09 mark), he revealed that a team of prosecutors too had already been gathering evidence for months. 

If you’d ask me, though, all this was the easy part. We expose, anti-corruption advocates are encouraged, citizens appreciate the work, government prosecutors start the arduous process of building a case… 

And then the election comes. And voters still reelect the contractors or their relatives. And the national budget stays as “unsexy” news that most people choose not to follow. And contractors like Graia, even if projects are proven to be substandard or unfinished, continue getting DPWH projects unless they are banned.

I am not being pessimistic. I’m just trying to say, we — journalists, watchdogs, and every citizen who cares enough for clean and honest governance — need to continue the work, and work harder at what we do.

If you believe in Rappler’s work and the part that independent journalism plays in building a better nation, I hope you can support us by becoming a Rappler+ member or by contributing to our investigative journalism fund.  – Rappler.com

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