AT A GLANCE
CAVITE, Philippines – Former senator Ramon “Bong” Revilla Jr. may have recently been allowed temporary freedom while being tried for alleged flood control corruption, but infrastructure-related questions linger around his family.
Graia Construction Corporation, a company that lists Revilla’s younger sister Rebecca Bautista-Ocampo as president, was awarded 67 projects worth P4.72 billion by the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) over the last nine years, Rappler learned.
The company got these contracts while Rebecca’s two brothers and a nephew were lawmakers who had a hand in crafting the national budget, which included that of DPWH’s. This gives rise to possible conflict of interest, which is a crime under the anti-corruption law.
Of the 67 projects that Graia Construction got, all except for two were in Cavite — particularly, 55 in Bacoor, the Revilla family’s longtime political bailiwick. These had a total amount of over P4 billion.
There are also four projects in Kawit, two in Noveleta, and one in Cavite City — all in the province’s 1st District, a fairly new Revilla bailiwick after they defeated the Abaya dynasty in 2022. The projects had a combined amount of P611 million.
Graia also had three national road projects in Cavite: one along Tagaytay-Amadeo road and two along the Tanza-Indang highway, totaling P49.4 million.
The only Graia Construction projects outside of Cavite were in Obando, Bulacan. Awarded in 2016, these were road dike projects worth a combined P19.2 million.
The project involved in the malversation case for which Bong Revilla is currently being tried by the anti-graft court is also located in Bulacan, in Pandi town, which is under another engineering district.
Rappler tried to inquire with Graia Construction from late June to early July via phone and emails regarding its government contracts, but we have yet to get a response. We will update this article once a statement becomes available.
Conflict of interest
The contracts cited in this report were awarded by DWPH to Graia Construction during the full term of former president Rodrigo Duterte and in the early years of Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s administration. The DPWH website displays details of contracts only as far back as 2016. The Revillas supported the campaigns of both presidents.
During this nine-year-period, too, three Revillas served in Congress:
- Until 2016, Rebecca’s older brother Bong was senator and chairperson of the Senate committee on public works. This means the DPWH budget for 2016 was deliberated on during Bong’s chairmanship. Graia Construction bagged P145.86 million in contracts that year.
- Bong Revilla returned as senator and public works committee chairman from 2019 to 2025, technically having a hand in crafting the DPWH budgets for 2020 to 2026. During this time, Graia Construction’s contracts ballooned to:
- P401.92 million in 2020
- P619.65 million in 2021
- P854.05 million in 2022
- P911.51 million in 2023
- P615.79 million in 2024
- P782.62 million in 2025
- From 2016 to 2019, the only Revilla in the legislature was Rebecca’s younger brother Strike, representing the 2nd District of Cavite composed solely of Bacoor. (Before this, Bong’s wife Lani Mercado-Revilla was the congresswoman.)
- Starting 2022 (and up to the present), the Revillas have expanded their bailiwick to include the 1st District of Cavite with the election of Bong’s son Jolo as congressman.
The Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act (Republic Act No. 3019) punishes the crimes of undue injury to the government and conflict of interest.
Public officials are deemed to have caused financial or material damage to the government when:
- their office has the power to “grant…licenses or permits or other concessions” and
- they give any private party “any unwarranted benefits, advantage or preference in the discharge of [their] official administrative or judicial functions through manifest partiality, evident bad faith or gross inexcusable negligence.”
The law, under Section 3(h), punishes public officials who have direct or indirect financial or pecuniary interest in any business, contract, or transaction “with which [they intervene or take part in their] official capacity.”
Graia Construction’s growth
UNFINISHED: The revetment wall by Graia Construction along the Bacoor River is only 39.83% complete after the contract expired in early 2026. Photo by Axel Cainglet/Rappler
The Revillas are the biggest political dynasty in Cavite, a first-class and the second most populous province in the Philippines. Currently, eight family members are holding elective positions.
While Graia’s registered owner Rebecca (known as Princess Revilla in her days as an actress) is not in politics, her son Iggy Revilla-Ocampo is a city councilor in Imus, the original hometown of patriarch Ramon Revilla Sr.
Graia Construction, which holds office at the Revilla Business Park across the Aguinaldo Highway from the Revilla mansion in Bacoor was founded in 2003. That was the year before Bong Revilla was first elected senator and named chairman of the Senate committee on public works. It was also their father Ramon Revilla Sr.’s last full year as senator and chairman of the public works committee.
Mostly flood control projects
Based on the data available on the DPWH website, from 2016 to 2025, Rebecca’s company handled mostly flood control projects.
Of the 65 projects in Cavite, 48 were for flood control — that is around seven for every 10 projects. The Cavite flood control contracts amounted to P3.84 billion or 81% of all the projects that Graia Construction got in nine years.
Of those P3.84-billion worth of flood control projects, P3.2 billion were in Bacoor.
The rest of the projects awarded to Graia Construction were for national roads, and wide-scale installation of solar street lights across Cavite.
State of the projects
The construction of all eight infrastructure and flood control projects awarded in 2025 are ongoing despite the contracts having expired, as indicated in the DPWH portal.
Rappler visited two project sites of Graia Construction and found them either unfinished or in bad condition.
In Barangay Habay along the Bacoor River, there are now holes in the thin revetment wall. The DPWH says the project is only 39.83% accomplished, despite the contract expiring in March 2026.
The revetment wall along Daang Bukid River constructed in 2020 is already damaged with some steel left exposed and an excavator machine left idle. – with additional research by Jairo Bolledo/Rappler.com
Axel John Cainglet is a BA Political Science student at the University of the Philippines Manila. An Aries Rufo Journalism Fellow for 2026, he is the news editor of The Manila Collegian.
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