Residents in Barangay Lapuan, Don Marcelino, Davao Occidental are not aware that the revetment they have converted into a swimming pool is a project by Alpha & Omega Gen. Contractor & Development Corp., a Discaya-owned contractor. MindaNews photo by GREGORIO C BUENO
DON MARCELINO, Davao Occidental (MindaNews / 29 July 2026) – A tall, lean boy launched himself into the water, executing a nearly flawless somersault from the cemented riverbank. His wet, brown skin caught the sunlight as the neighborhood children looked on.
They have turned this concrete flood control project into their own private swimming pool.
Rather than muddy currents, the newly cemented slopes keep the Lapuan river here clear and calm, creating an unexpected oasis in the heart of the mountain town.
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But when heavy rains come, the river transforms. Waters rush down the higher slopes and surge into the riverbed, flooding downstream communities and, at times, claiming lives.
Flood control infrastructure projects are intended to be the first line of defense. But in some areas in the Davao region, like in many parts of the country, the waters keep rising despite billions in allocated funds.
The companies linked to Pacifico “Curlee” and Cezarah Rowena “Sarah” Discaya, dubbed “king and queen of flood control,” also have a significant footprint in the Davao region or Region XI. They cornered up to P4.2 billion worth of contracts from 2016 to 2025, based on data from the transparency website of the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH).
The Discayas secured nearly 8% of almost P54 billion worth of flood control contracts in Region XI over the last decade – a fraction of the couple’s P78 billion portfolio of nationwide projects awarded under the Duterte and Marcos administrations.
They were arrested over strings of cases linked to alleged corruption. Sarah voluntarily surrendered to the National Bureau of Investigation last December 2025, while Curlee was transferred from Senate custody to the Bulacan provincial jail on June 8, 2026. On July 7, Sarah Discaya was granted bail by the Regional Trial Court of Lapu-Lapu City, with Presiding Judge Nelson Leyco of the RTC Branch 27 setting the amount at P1 million, according to reports from Cebu Daily News. Curlee Discaya, for his part, still faces the non-bailable malversation charges.
Environmental planner Lemuel Manalo, who spent more than a decade in environmental advocacy work, says local governments could learn from the sites where the projects are being constructed.
“We need to allocate funds and design our drainage and flood management projects like ‘sponges’ that can capture, absorb, store, and carefully release water,” Manalo told MindaNews.
Manalo noted that most current flood control projects rely strictly on infrastructure rather than nature. “In understanding watershed hydrology, we need both to work together for holistic flood management,” he said. “Dili lang magbuhat ug concrete dikes and levees sa mga sapa. (Dikes and levees along rivers are not enough).”
Manalo believes floods should be managed naturally instead of water simply being diverted. With human activity disrupting rivers, he said these have nowhere else to go but settlements if policymakers don’t anticipate effects.
“Naturally, wetlands do the job, but since we have lost many to reclamation, urbanization, and land development, water has nowhere to go but into our settlements,” he said. To fix this, he suggests the government integrate nature-based engineering like man-made detention ponds. “Dili lang diking ug flood control, connected interventions ang kailangan… Dapat naay mga detention basins ang atong drainage plans (it shouldn’t just be dikes and flood control, what we need are connected interventions).
Back in Barangay Lapuan, the community is unaware that one of two flood control projects in the barangay was cornered by the Discayas.
Lapuan Barangay chair Jemboy Tuado said there was no consultation on any of the projects right outside his backyard, even during the previous term when he was still a barangay councilor.
Jemboy was barangay councilor from 2018 to 2023. The Lapuan contract, 22LE0034, started in 2022, during the term of the previous chair, Medeline Mallari.
The P96.5 million contract to construct a concrete revetment along the Lapuan River was awarded to the Alpha and Omega Gen. Contractor & Development Corp. Sarah Discaya is President of the company, according to 2021 records of the Securities and Exchange Commission.
CAPTION: Project ID 22LE0034 was awarded to Alpha and Omega Gen. Contractor & Development Corp. in 2022.
Tuado said it would have been best if the DPWH and the contractors engaged them in the planning of the project. But no one did. As the rainy season begins again, he told MindaNews he was concerned over a crack in the concrete revetment.
“Dapat nakig-istorya sa barangay kay kami man kabalo asa ang baha diri (they should have spoken to us barangay officials since we know where the floods are),” he said.
Lapuan’s problems aren’t limited to river floods. Lapuan is a community trapped between competing environmental hazards. It is tucked into a rugged mountainous topography, sits right next to an unpredictable river prone to flash floods, and remains tied to the coastal vulnerabilities of the Davao Gulf.
In May 2025, floods in Barangay Lapuan drowned 68-year-old Bandila Yuba Lagunsay, according to the Office of Civil Defense. A year earlier, from January to February 2024, the shearline and low pressure area flooded Don Marcelino town and caused millions of pesos in property damage.
Just recently, another part of Davao Occidental bore the brunt of flood waters, alongside Davao City as rains brought by a monsoon and a typhoon poured over the region.
On July 10, 2026, southwest monsoon rains along with tropical cyclone Inday continuously battered portions of Jose Abad Santos. Flash floods wiped out homes. In Barangay Tanuman Big in JAS, floodwaters swept four homes to sea, killing at least four, with six others remaining missing.
CAPTION: Portion of a revetment project damaged by recent floods in Lapuan, Don Marcellino, Davao Occidental, taken in April 2026. MindaNews photo by GREGORIO C. BUENO
Despite an abundance of flood control projects, the devastation the region has suffered from flooding in recent years is well documented.
Davao region comprises the provinces of Davao de Oro, Davao del Norte, Davao del Sur, Davao Occidental and Davao Oriental, and the cities of Davao, Panabo, Digos, Mati, Samal and Tagum.
Residents in parts of the Davao region interviewed by MindaNews questioned whether the infrastructure projects actually worked in the face of more frequent extreme weather events. It was a skepticism that was not limited to the projects linked to the Discayas.
Lapuan is located between multiple hazards: It sits at the foot of a hill, is right beside an unpredictable river, and was recently hit by the Magnitude 7.8 earthquake. MindaNews photo by YAS D OCAMPO
Discaya’s projects in Davao region
It was one of these projects in Davao region – a revetment project in Barangay Culaman in Jose Abad Santos, Davao Occidental – that gave impetus to the government to build one of its early cases against Sarah Discaya.
It was a “ghost project,” Public Works and Highways Secretary Vince Dizon said after inspecting the project site in September last year.
The flood control project was falsely reported to be completed.
Photos he showed the media after the inspection revealed that the site along the Culaman Bridge was practically untouched. Dizon alluded to the role of local officials and called out DPWH XI – Davao Occidental and regional officials to explain in writing why they should not be held administratively liable for the Culaman project.
Construction work for the flood control project in Culaman would only begin late last year, after Dizon’s inspection. When MindaNews visited the barangay in June 2026, a revetment structure had been completed along most parts of the river visible from the Culaman Bridge.
DPWH Secretary Vince Dizon leads inspection of what he described as a ghost flood-control project in the municipality of Jose Abad Santos, Davao Occidental, on Thursday (25 September 2025). DPWH photo
The Culaman Flood Control Project, taken June 21, 2026, apparently completed. No public information was immediately available about the new construction. MindaNews photo by Yas D. Ocampo
Culaman has suffered a lot from flooding. Five years ago, in May 2021, a child narrowly escaped death as a strong raging river almost swept him and his grandfather. That same year, a clip posted online by resident Neliza Wood also captured a harrowing scene at the Culaman Bridge in Barangay Lower Felis, Malita, where locals found themselves trapped by a sudden, raging overflow.
The Culaman project in question, identified as 22LE0029 in government records, was awarded to St. Timothy Construction Corporation. It was one of nine construction firms that Sarah Discaya admitted she owned during a Senate hearing in September 2025.
St Timothy Construction Corporation actually also bid for the Lapuan project, but lost to the Alpha and Omega Gen. Contractor & Development Corp, both Discaya-owned.
The two projects are very similar. They involve the construction of concrete revetment, both for P96.5 million. They also have District Engineer Rodrigo C. Larete and Acting Chief Accountant Czar Ryan S. Ubungen as signatories.
This pattern of questionable bidding practice across the country, which Sarah Discaya admitted they employed, happened in at least two dozen contracts in Davao region, based on MindaNews inspection of DPWH records.
The accreditations of both Alpha and Omega Gen. Contractor & Development Corp and St. Timothy Construction Corporation have since been revoked. The word “REVOKED” is uniformly attached to all of the Discaya contractors across the DPWH Transparency website.
Along with Sarah Discaya, Larete and Ubungen were detained over the ghost flood-control case in Culaman. Sarah’s husband, Curlee, faced separate charges in relation to flood control projects in Bulacan.).
Sarah Discaya pleaded not guilty to malversation and graft charges in January this year in relation to the Culaman project.
MindaNews sent an email to the DPWH regional office after exhausting publicly available data and the information that could be released by the agency’s Information office.
But the DPWH’s regional office has not yet responded to MindaNews’ June and July inquiries, redirecting specific questions to the Central Office and pointing instead to their transparency website. The regional information office of the DPWH XI also said it would not comment on an ongoing case.
The transparency portal omits critical details like project slippage, contractor handovers, and exact locations. For example, the provided Lapuan coordinates lead to two sites within the same area, making it impossible to tell whether Alpha and Omega’s work runs adjacent to SCP’s project, or where one contractor’s responsibility ends and the other’s begins.
In the case of the Culaman project, it was not clear whether it was the Discaya contractors who finally built the project, when the projects were done, and the cost of the construction.
Davao City is not without a Discaya project. There are at least 11, according to the three transparency portals. One such project is in Barangay Riverside in Calinan District, 24 kilometers away from the Davao City Hall.
The flood control projects in Riverside include a St. Timothy project contract, 22LH0015, a couple of blocks away from the Riverside barangay hall, according to a map from BetterGov.ph. The project costs ₱93,749,273, and locals say they did not know this was a Discaya contractor.
St. Timothy won the contract in February 2022 and the contract was marked completed February 2023.
In an interview on July 27, Jocelyn Alcaria, Riverside barangay chair, said she was not aware of the Discaya project near the bridge. The barangay was still making sense of the effects of a flooding three days earlier. On the other hand, resident Elton John Dorna, 50, said the project, which he remembers being constructed during the pandemic, helped their small community. What used to be waist-deep water during floods was no longer the case in more recent floods.
Carmen floods
In the other parts of the Davao Region visited by MindaNews, the story is the same. The barangays knew little about the flood control projects.
In Carmen, Davao del Norte, Girlie Santillan, chair of flood-prone Barangay Guadalupe, said the barangay council knows next to nothing about a nearby flood control project. Barangay officials have been left in the dark regarding its timeline and structural details.
Guadalupe was submerged twice in the last three years — in February 2024 and February 2026. MindaNews was on the ground to report on the massive disasters that were triggered by shearlines, extreme weather events that challenged the capacity of the small town.
“We even had to rescue one of our own barangay councilors,” she said.
In both cases, residents were forced to flee their homes as waters seeped into houses and damaged millions in property. For decades, residents have considered January and February as a season of rains and floods.
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PHOTO ESSAY: Waterworld in Carmen
MindaNews saw a dike during a site visit in April this year. However, the required billboard detailing the construction specifications had apparently been swept away by floodwaters, according to barangay officials.
Santillan said they are worried because the barangay council also reportedly discovered a crack in a critical section of the dike, which she said likely caused floodwaters to bleed into Guadalupe town.
In February 2024, the barangay hall itself, along with the gym, was in knee-deep water during the flooding.
MindaNews drone footage of Carmen, Davao del Norte during the floods in February 2026. The photo includes a capture of the Barangay Gym (large structure) and the Barangay Hall (adjacent green roof), also affected. The gym is the barangay’s evacuation center. MindaNews photo by YAS D OCAMPO
The same thing happened this year. On February 19, a shear line flooded portions of Carmen, the municipality of Asuncion and the city of Tagum. A MindaNews team on its way to Tagum and Asuncion saw displaced families living in makeshift tents and vehicles parked along the major highways of Carmen – a usual sight when the rains come.
“We’re even instructed to limit relief goods to those who lost their homes,” Santillan said. “But what about those who lost their crops? We made sure to assist them, too.”
Several residents believe that the funds wasted on flood control anomalies could have been better spent on other projects.
The barangays visited by MindaNews have annual budgets lower than P7 million. This means that for each year, these barangays only had around P300,000 to deal with disasters: 70% of that fund for preparation, and the 30% as quick response, as mandated by RA 11021 or the Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Act of 2010. In some barangays, the disaster was so widespread they couldn’t afford another deluge.
Worse, local officials said persistent flooding continues to deplete disaster response funds.
Lapuan has no rescue vehicle, no evacuation area, and no steady stash of medical supplies. A hospital would have been better, or at the minimum, rescue vehicles, he said.
In Carmen, Davao del Norte, Santillan said Guadalupe has depleted its meager P97,000 quick response fund (QRF) for the year. She was concerned they would not be able to respond should another disaster happen this year.
The P97,000 QRF, representing 30% of their annual disaster fund, buys affected residents in Guadalupe relief goods in the form of rice. On the provincial level, Santillan said, only those who were displaced by the floods receive aid, she said.
“But what of those who were not displaced but whose crops, whose vegetables were affected? They didn’t lose their homes but they were affected, too,” she said. Santillan said she fought for them to still receive rice aid, no matter how meager.
Santillan said Guadalupe only has funding for training and equipment under its disaster budget.
Thirty minutes away, in Barangay Taba, also in Carmen town, the Alisoso family of Purok Nipa told MindaNews that flood control measures were not enough to stop floods in their areas.
They live near the Sadpudon Creek, in Carmen, part of a network of waterways that usually spill over into the rest of Carmen during extreme weather.
Ray Alisoso, a palm weaver, said they have seen no respite from the floods. When the floods hit, such as the one during the 2024 shearline, the water across the Sadpudon Creek in Barangay Taba submerged the small village.
Esterlyn, Ray’s wife, says the water levels in the village vary, as ground levels differ in the small area they’ve converted into their palm weaving processing.
“Over there, the water is this high,” she pointed to her thighs, referring to a house a little farther from the creek.
“There,” she said, referring to land closer to water, “it’s this high.” The water can go neck-deep.
Ironically, their home in Taba is right across from a flood control project, too, although not as extravagant looking as the Discaya projects.
The projects in Sadpudon have at least three contractors, Rely Construction, Seismundo, and Kanaway Builders. Throughout Carmen, there are ₱831,996,515.37 in flood control contracts from 2015 to 2026.
The 16 flood control projects in Carmen are shared among 16 contractors, namely Maer Summit Konstrukt Co., Ruplino Seismundo Construction Corporation, AKN Construction Corporation, GP & H Construction Incorporated, Fordex Construction Corporation, Rely Construction & Supply Inc., Kanaway Builders Corporation, O. G. Santos Construction, MC Geometric Proportions, Inc., FFJJ Construction, Legacy Construction Corporation.
But the case of Carmen, Davao del Norte is complex. Sadpudon and Guadalupe share the same watercourse.
The waterworld of Carmen remains one of the regional DPWH’s challenges during heavy rains. Based on the DPWH’s own transparency portal, five revetment projects alone cost ₱354,962,787.05.
MindaNews flew a drone around the area on April 6 to see the proximity to danger. Upstream, there was sedimentation in the middle of a river, the formation was so big that large plants were already growing. It was the first time the community saw this landscape from above.
The scale of alleged corruption in flood control projects, the millions of pesos of public funds allegedly pocketed by contractors and government officials, is staggering for residents like Alisoso who earns P200 on a good day from weaving nipa palms to sell as construction materials. The weavings are sold as low-cost roofings, light and affordable for those who build huts as homes.
Faced with public outrage over alleged anomalies, government agencies are scrambling to show progress.
In June, the DPWH Central Office posted a video showing the agency dredging portions of the Libuganon River, taking advantage of a dry season.
The Libuganon River is one of the major river systems in southeastern Mindanao. When heavy rains hit the northern highlands, this upstream volume of water flowers down through Davao del Norte, cutting straight through Tagum and Carmen before emptying into the Davao Gulf.
In Carmen, Santillan said that it was a little better in 2026 when the flood waters were not as heavy as in 2024. She said out of 20 barangays, it was only Guadalupe and another barangay, Manaus, that were hit by floods.
But whether it is one or 20 barangays, each flooding incident means loss. Homes. Appliances. Furniture. Livelihood. Sometimes, lives.
In Asuncion, Davao del Norte in February, a family watched as their crops were submerged in flood waters. A few were crossing by boat from the main road in Asuncion towards their homes and crops hit by floods.
It was a few days before harvest time. But there was nothing to harvest anymore.
Even urban centers like Davao City still suffer despite major influx of infrastructure along many upstream parts of the Davao River.
In Barangay Pangyan, between Tugbok and Tigatto, there is another Discaya project awarded to Alpha and Omega (20LH0010) and another to St. Timothy (19LH0012). Another flood control project is in Barangay New Valencia (23LH0013), with residents there also unaware they were living right next to a Discaya project.
Nature-based solutions
Non-government organizations say government budgeting lacks community consultation, causing mismatched flood infrastructure. Mark Peñalver, Executive Director of Interfacing Development Interventions for Sustainability (IDIS) Peñalver notes that travel and access barriers prevent grassroots leaders from pitching localized, nature-based solutions for city land-use plans.
“Sometimes, communities don’t need dikes — they need nature-based solutions,” he said.
While IDIS collaborates with governments on Comprehensive Land Use Plans (CLUPs), a requirement for LGUs under the Local Government Code, access remains a barrier. Peñalver said it is impractical for grassroots or indigenous leaders to constantly travel to the city for meetings, meaning planners rarely see localized flood solutions. Though IDIS has successfully embedded green policies into the CLUPs of Davao City, Koronadal, Mati, and Tagum, Peñalver emphasizes that true sustainability requires LGUs to shift from costly gray infrastructure toward valuing natural resources.
He said one success story in Davao City is the establishment of reforestation efforts in the Panigan-Tamugan watershed. The idea is to bring the solutions upstream, instead of focusing too much on diverting water. But even so, climate change and an ongoing garbage problem in Davao City have made these efforts an uphill battle.
El Niño, La Niña
The families in flood-prone areas interviewed by MindaNews are in a precarious situation as the future does not seem to offer relief. El Niño threatens to dry up their agricultural livelihoods, while La Niña is bound to soak cities and municipalities with rains and floods.
According to the state weather bureau, the Philippines is expected to experience El Niño in the June to August 2026 period. A super El Niño is also expected in November and could persist into 2027.
The residents of Sitio Nipa, Barangay Taba, Carmen, Davao del Norte spend each day weaving Nipa mats and earning an honest living. MindaNews photo by GREGORIO C BUENO
At the creek in Sadpudon, each day seems routine for the Alisoso family. Some weave as many palms as they can to sell at two pesos apiece, hoping to make a living out from the abundant palm trees in the vicinity. The rest of the community tends to the farm animals. Ducks and chickens roamed free, the river quietly flowing.
Like many across the flood-battered Davao Region, these communities are left entirely at the mercy of the weather. For them, survival comes first, forcing them to suffer the devastating costs of systemic neglect in silence.
(This story was produced with support from Internews’ Earth Journalism Network. MindaNews used AI tools to assist in some of the data analysis.)
