Marcos ready to face ICI over reported P21-M contributions from contractors
President Marcos is ready to face an investigation over the millions of pesos in campaign contributions he reportedly received from contractors when he ran in 2022.
At a press briefing on Monday, Palace press officer Claire Castro said Mr. Marcos is open to being called by the Independent Commission for Infrastructure (ICI), which he himself created to probe corruption in government flood control projects and other public infrastructure in the past 10 years.
“The President is willing to be investigated,” said Castro, who also called on the Commission on Elections (Comelec) to also investigate if President Marcos violated poll regulations. “The President is brave and knows what he is doing. And whatever may be investigated here, he will not excuse himself either,” she added.
In a series of reports, the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism (PCIJ) found that Mr. Marcos, Vice President Sara Duterte and six senators received campaign contributions from donors with links to government contractors and franchisees.
Under the Omnibus Election Code, candidates cannot source any “contribution for purposes of partisan political activity … directly or indirectly” from, among others, people who hold government contracts or subcontracts.
Major donor
In the case of the President, he indicated in the statement of campaign contributions and expenses he submitted to the Comelec that Rodulfo Hilot Jr. was among his major donors for the 2022 polls.
Hilot, the owner of Zamboanga del Sur-based Rudhil Construction & Enterprises Inc., contributed P20 million to Mr. Marcos’ campaign kitty.
Another contractor, Jonathan Quirante, who owns Cebu-based Quirante Construction Corp., donated P1 million.
Based on PCIJ’s investigation, the public works contracts awarded to these two contractors significantly went up in the past three years.
For 2023, the first year that the national budget was enacted under President Marcos, Rudhil Construction was awarded P2.7 billion in infrastructure projects. This went up to P3.5 billion the following year.
On the other hand, Quirante Construction’s government contracts doubled from P1.9 billion in 2022 to P3.1 billion in 2023. The following year, the amount went up to P3.7 billion and P3.8 billion in the first eight months of 2025.
