Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp. (PAGCOR) chairman and chief executive Alejandro Tengco on Thursday refuted allegations of conflict of interest regarding public works contracts won by his family’s construction firm, Nationstar Development Corporation.
Tengco said he has no direct or indirect influence in the awarding of these contracts and has fully divested his interest in the company.
Tengco denied that Nationstar, which he founded in 2015, won government contracts due to his ties to the family of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.
He cited the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act (RA 3019) and the Code of Conduct of Government Employees (RA 6713), saying that a conflict of interest only occurs when an official has a direct or indirect financial or pecuniary interest in a contract where they must intervene in their official capacity.
“For one, my position as chairman and CEO of PAGCOR has no direct or indirect influence in the awarding of public works contracts to Nationstar,” Tengco said.
“For another, I have fully divested all my interests in Nationstar when I assumed the top PAGCOR post in 2022, thus eliminating any potential conflict of interest. I actually started divesting my holdings to my children in 2019,” he said.
Tengco noted that he entered the construction business in 1996 and founded Nationstar in 2015. He said that Nationstar is a legitimate business entity with prior and ongoing contracts with both government and private sectors, including local government units.
He said Nationstar executed works for the Malacañang premier guest house and the Presidential Management Staff Building during the administrations of President Benigno Aquino III and President Rodrigo Duterte, establishing its reputation.
During the pandemic, the Duterte administration contracted Nationstar to build modular hospitals across the country. More recently, Tengco said Nationstar completed private contracts, including the Senior High School building for Ateneo de Manila and other public-run schools, which qualified the company for the Western Visayas State University project that was cited in an online publication as questionable.
“Nationstar also completed the retrofit and fit-out of Meralco’s headquarters just a year ago, both to show that it has easily passed vetting by both public and private institutions,” Tengco said.
He said that although Nationstar secured Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) projects through fair bids, none were related to flood control or “ghost projects.”
Regarding the Davao City bypass road project, Tengco clarified Nationstar did not win the contract alone. “We joined a consortium which included the China Road and Bridges Corporation because they have the capability to undertake such big project and the consortium won the bid not Nationstar,” he said.
Tengco said that singling out his close ties with the Marcos family is selective and distorts Nationstar’s legitimate business activities regardless of partisan political considerations. He said that it is up to Congress to determine if there are gaps in existing conflict-of-interest laws.
