BUSINESSWOMAN Sarah Discaya will appeal the Philippine Contractors Accreditation Board (PCAB) decision to revoke the contractor licenses of her nine construction firms, her lawyer confirmed on Thursday.
“Definitely, because it is a violation of our client’s right to due process,” said Atty. Cornelio Samaniego III, noting that the Discaya camp had earlier requested 30 days to submit documents in response to PCAB’s investigation.
“Actually, there is a pending investigation by PCAB into these companies. So we asked for time to provide the documents… We were surprised that our client’s permits and licenses were immediately revoked,” he added.
In a September 1 resolution, PCAB ordered the immediate cancellation of the contractor licenses of the following firms linked to Discaya:
- St. Gerrard Construction Gen. Contractor & Dev’t Corporation
- Alpha & Omega Gen. Contractor & Dev’t Corporation
- St. Timothy Construction Corporation
- Amethyst Horizon Builders and Gen. Contractor & Dev’t Corp.
- St. Matthew General Contractor & Development Corporation
- Great Pacific Builders and General Contractor, Inc.
- YPR General Contractor and Construction Supply, Inc.
- Way Maker OPC
- Elite General Contractor and Development Corp.
PCAB cited Discaya’s admission during a Senate hearing that she owned the nine firms, which had taken part in government project bidding. The board said this constituted a “scheme of joint or multiple bidding participation” aimed at manipulating results and cornering public contracts, undermining transparency, fairness, and competition in violation of procurement laws.
It concluded that the continued accreditation of Discaya’s firms would be “inimical to public interest, industry integrity, and government procurement transparency.”
Samaniego, however, clarified that Discaya is now associated only with Alpha & Omega Gen. Contractor & Dev’t Corp., saying she had already divested her interests in the other companies.