Former Bicol DPWH official included in lifestyle probe

By Manny T. Ugalde

LEGAZPI CITY – A former Albay district engineer, now serving as a regional director in the Visayas, has been placed under investigation in a lifestyle check ordered by the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH).

Public Works Secretary Vince Dizon has initiated a lifestyle probe involving 15 engineers, including Danilo Villa, former head of the Albay 2nd District Engineering Office and now the DPWH regional director in Region 7.

Villa is among the initial batch of officials under scrutiny. Notably, no current DPWH officials in the Bicol region were included in the list, despite the Presidential Anti-Corruption Commission previously identifying the Bicol regional office as among the most corrupt in the country.

Originally from Laguna, Villa was appointed to the Albay post during the administration of President Benigno Aquino III on March 29, 2016, and served until January 19, 2021. He is married to a Bicolana, reportedly the sister of the late Ako Bicol Party-list Congressman Rodel Batocabe. Villa became known in Legazpi not only for his public works role but also for being a prominent cockfighting enthusiast, often seen with two engineer-staff members—one of whom is now a district engineer, and the other a bureau director.

Recent reports in Legazpi allege that Villa purchased the Galleria De Legazpi in Barangay Rawis—just 200 meters from the regional DPWH office—for P200 million. The property, formerly owned by a contractor, is known for hosting both local and national cockfighting derbies.

The DPWH Bicol region, which oversees 16 district engineering offices, has long been criticized for being a haven of so-called “insider contractors”—including even job order workers, some of whom are known to own luxury vehicles.

In 2018, newly appointed Assistant Regional Director Jaime Martinez expressed surprise during a press conference upon seeing the regional office filled with high-end vehicles reportedly owned by contractual and job order employees.

In one incident, a female contractual employee reportedly lost P200,000 in cash stored in her office drawer during a flag ceremony. However, she was allegedly discouraged by top officials from reporting the theft to authorities to avoid negative media attention.

In a separate case in 2009, then DPWH Regional Director Danilo Manalang sought an investigation by the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) into a robbery at the Albay 2nd District Engineering Office. Although the reported amount lost was initially pegged at P500,000, Manalang claimed he had just signed off on a P20 million payment for a road project the day before the incident. He further alleged that the project may have been contracted by the district engineer himself, with payment documents reportedly processed by the engineer’s secretary.

Tragically, two years after his reassignment, Manalang was murdered in his hometown in Pampanga. He became the fourth DPWH official to be killed within a year of being relieved from post in 2010. Among those previously murdered were Regional Director Nestor “Jake” Tria and Assistant District Engineer Floriano Sarmiento of Camarines Sur. Tria was shot at the Pili Airport, while Sarmiento was gunned down in his office during working hours.

When contacted for comment, current Bicol Regional Director Virgilio Eduarte said that “insider contractors” are now a thing of the past. Since his assignment to the region in 2019, Eduarte claimed that the long-standing issues of corruption and favoritism have already been addressed.