IT MAY only be No. 5 in the Top 10, but A.D. Gonzales Construction and Trading Co. Inc., the eponymous company of the immediate past House Senior Deputy Speaker and three-term Pampanga 3rd District congressman, holds the largest funded single flood control projects in the province.
A listing in the “Sumbong sa Pangulo” website shows A.D. Gonzales Construction undertaking:
1) the Abacan River diking and slope protection project in Mexico, Pampanga at a cost of P270.194 million reported completed on March 6, 2024; and
2) flood control works on the Pasig-Potrero River and the San Fernando-Bacolor section of the San Fernando-Sto. Tomas-Minalin Tail Dike at a cost of P257.255 million and completed on June 5, 2024. (Erroneously placed in La Union in the sumbong website).
One more project listed under A.D. Gonzales Construction is another Abacan River diking, also in Mexico but distinguished as Phase I, with a cost of P96.496 million and completed on Nov. 23, 2023.
Ferdstar Builders Contractors
Considered small in some grander hundred-million standard of infrastructure largesse, the cost of P96++ million – intriguingly – institutionalized some sort of mathematical equation among the contracts.
This, most notable in Top 3 Ferdstar Builders Contractors Inc., listed as a sole proprietorship of Ferdinand Beltran, neophyte House member representing the – of all sectors – Magsasaka Partylist, with eight projects tagged at P96++M each, to wit:
1) slope protection of Sapang Maragul, Betis, Guagua at P96.494M, Jan. 18. 2025;
2) slope protection Guagua River Phase 2, Betis at P96.493M, Dec. 25, 2024;
3) slope protection Upper Dalan Bapor Phase 2, Sasmuan at P96.494M, Dec. 19,2023
4) rehab Guagua-Pasak River Phase 3 (with Cedar Construction), P96.489M, Feb. 11, 2023;
5) rehab Guagua River, Sta. Ursula, Betis, P96.476M, Dec. 13, 2022;
6) slope protection Betis River, P96.491M, Nov. 22, 2022;
7) slope protection Angeles City-Porac Bypass Phase 2, P96.143M, Nov. 11, 2022; and
8) slope protection Angeles City-Porac Bypass Phase 3 (with Tonka Construction), P96.098M, Nov. 16, 2022.
Variation of the P96++M constant in Ferdstar Builders’ undertaking were a smaller – P72,358M slope protection in Sapang Maragul, Guagua completed on Nov. 27, 2022; and a much bigger – P144.750M flood control and slope protection at the Pasig-Potrero in Bacolor and Porac completed on March 7, 2024.
Incidentally, Ferdstar Builders in April 2025 was awarded the contract for Phase 2 diking and slope protection works along Abacan River in Mexico, taking after A/D. Gonzales Construction.
Sto. Cristo Construction & Trading
Ferdstar’s top contract of P144.750M for Pasig-Potrero though was but one of four similarly priced for Sto. Cristo Construction and Trading Inc. of one Noel J. Cruz, all slope protection works at the Malasik River, in Candaba town, to wit:
1) Barangca Section, P144.750M, July 16, 2024;
2) Magumbali Section, P144.750M, May 16, 2024;
3) Mapaniqui Secction, P144.750M, May 16, 2024; and
4) Salapungan Section, P144.750M, May 16, 2024.
Lower but as invariant values also obtained in more slope protection project by the same firm at the same Malasik River:
1) Magumbali Section, P91.095M, Dec. 15, 2024;
2) San Agustin Section Phase 1, P91.095M, Dec. 11, 2024;
3) San Agustin Phase 2, P91.192M, Feb. 3, 2024;
4) Barangca Section Phase 4, P78.798M, Nov. 1, 2024;
5) Barangca Section Phase 3, P78.798M, Nov. 1, 2024;
6) San Agustin Section Phase 3, P78.857, Oct. 21, 2024
The lowest cost of Malasik River projects – P68.394M at Barangca Phase 2 – seemingly set the tone for those at Maasim River, also in Candaba, to wit:
1) damaged dike rehab Vizal San Pablo Phase 1, P68.321M, Jan. 25, 2024;
2) damages dike rehab Vizal San Pablo Phase 2, P68.394M, Jan. 19,2024;
3) slope protection Phase 2 Pulong Gubat, P68.321M, Jan. 11, 2024;
4) slope protection Phase 1 Bahay Pare, P68.321M, Jan. 11, 2024; and
5) slope protection Phase 2 Bahay Pare, P68.321M, Feb. 12, 2024.
Outside Candaba, Sto. Cristo Construction did projects in Arayat: riverbank revetment Phase 2 San Mateo, P91.095M, Nov. 16, 2024; in Apalit: slope protection Sapang Are, P74.883M, Nov. 11, 2024; and in Floridablanca: slope protection Valdez Section of Porac River, P48.844M, in Sept. 14, 2022.
By the sheer number of projects, Sto Cristo Construction is Top 1 in Pampanga with P1.713-B. The Malasik River projects alone already amounting to P1.157 billion.
Eddmari Construction & Trading
Candating, Arayat: The very “face of failed flood control projects,” as Sen. Ping Lacson put it in his privilege speech that launched government investigations and opened the floodgates, no pun intended, of public denunciations, of rants and rages over the shameless ostentation of wealth of contractors and what have come to be called their “nepo babies.”
Candating, infamously Sisyphean in its cycle of destruction and rehabilitation, inevitably becoming itself the face of its contractor – Eddmari Construction and Trading, at Top 4 is a slot ahead of A.D. Gonzales Construction by P40 million in total flood control project allocation.
Recurrence relation again obtained in the cost of the Candating rehabilitation projects, to wit:
1) P91.626M, Oct. 17, 2023;
2) Phase 1: P91.485M, Nov. 5, 2024; and
3) Phase 2: P91.485M, Nov. 4, 2024.
As well as in two other Eddmari projects: flood control at Dalaquitan Bridge, Sto. Tomas, P91.674M, Feb. 22, 2024; and slope protection in barangays Cupang and Guemasan, Arayat, P91.578M, Jan. 19, 2025.
Furthermore, revetment wall of the Pampanga Delta project in Capalangan, Apalit, P74.883M, March 5, 2025; drainage system in barangays Cabalantian and San Vicente, Bacolor, P37.239M, Aug 7, 2022.
Plus, a joint project with Nulas Builders: rehabilitation of eroded riverbank in San Juan, San Luis, P83.810M, Oct. 26, 2022.
That last project instantly raised a moral red flag: Eddmari owner Edgardo A. Sagum is close kin to Dr. Jayson Sagum, the mayor of San Luis who, himself is the husband of Pampanga 4th District Rep. Anna York P. Bondoc.
For all it’s worth, Eddmari Construction is in joint venture partnership with J.H. Pajara Construction Company in the construction of the ₱566.6-million Pampanga Delta Bridge Project implemented by DPWH Unified Project Managent Office – Bridges Management Cluster.
Reported in September 2022 by DPWH Senior Undersecretary Emil K. Sadain as 88% complete despite disruptions wrought by the Covid-19 pandemic, the 270-meter bridge has remained incomplete three years after.
Only last Aug. 21, Congresswoman Bondoc assured the public that the Pampanga Delta Bridge Project will be completed by 2027, after “ironing out remaining components of the project” with DPWH-3 officials.
No ghost hunting
Reported to have been completed – as indicated in dates attached per item – no phantom projects obtain in Pampanga, at least on paper.
Unarguably, a number of these projects – Candating, Malasik River foremost – have been found substandard in their construction, at the minimum. Thereby, meriting the deepest investigation by the most competent and independent authority. The inclusion in any and all fact-finding probe of the government officials and members of their families with even the slightest involvement in the contracts, a sine qua non.
This, not so much in aid of legislation or pursuant to political ambition but in the interest of justice. In the service of the Filipino people, the Kapampangan most particularly.
