Rowegie Abanto

Pacifico and Cezarah Discaya, owners of St. Gerrard Construction Company, attend a Senate Blue Ribbon Committee hearing on the alleged ghost flood control projects at the Philippine Senate on September 8, 2025. Mark Demayo, ABS-CBN News

Pacifico and Cezarah Discaya, owners of St. Gerrard Construction Company, attend a Senate Blue Ribbon Committee hearing on the alleged ghost flood control projects at the Philippine Senate on September 8, 2025.
Mark Demayo, ABS-CBN News

Article (news)

Pacifico and Cezarah Discaya,

Job Manahan

ABS-CBN News

<div><span class="fr-img-caption fr-fic fr-dib" style="width:960px"><span class="fr-img-wrap"><img src="https://od2-image-api.abs-cbn.com/prod/editorImage/175988998134120250908-senate-blue-ribbon-discayas-17 (2).jpg" style="width:960px" class="fr-fic fr-dib"/><span class="fr-inner" style="text-align:left">Pacifico and Cezarah Discaya, owners of St. Gerrard Construction Company, attend a Senate Blue Ribbon Committee hearing on the alleged ghost flood control projects at the Philippine Senate on September 8, 2025.Mark Demayo, ABS-CBN News</span></span></span></div><p style="text-align:left">MANILA — The Bureau of Internal Revenue on Wednesday announced that it filed P7.18-billion &quot;criminal&quot; tax charges against government contractors Sarah and Curlee Discaya as well as one of their aides, revealing that the couple &quot;never divested&quot; from some of their firms as they previously claimed.</p><p>In a statement, the BIR said the couple —  among the key personalities in the flood control corruption scandal — and the corporate officer of St. Gerrard Construction Corporation, were facing a total of P7,182,172,532.25 in total tax liabilities.</p><div><a href="https://www.abs-cbn.com/news/nation/2025/9/3/discaya-couple-are-ph-s-flood-control-king-and-queen-with-p31-b-in-flood-control-projects-pcij-0843">Discaya couple are PH&#x27;s &#x27;flood control king and queen&#x27;, with P31-B in flood control projects - PCIJ</a></div><p>The liabilities were composed of unpaid individual income taxes of the couple, the unpaid excise taxes on their nine luxury vehicles, and the unpaid documentary stamp taxes on their supposed divestment from four of Discaya-owned construction firms, according to BIR Commissioner Romeo Lumagui in a statement.</p><p>The agency said it had discovered that for taxable years 2018 to 2021, the couple &quot;failed to pay billions in income taxes.&quot;</p><p>&quot;Although we have already discovered P7.1 billion in tax deficiencies, the cases filed today are merely the tip of the iceberg. These cases focused more on individual tax liabilities of spouses Discaya,&quot; Lumagui said.</p><p>He said that the agency was still expecting &quot;findings of billions of tax deficiencies&quot; once they finish auditing the construction companies of the Discayas.</p><p>&quot;We will file more tax evasion cases as soon as we have all the information we need,&quot; he said.</p><div><br/></div><div><strong>&#x27;THEY FAILED TO DIVEST&#x27;</strong></div><div><br/></div><p>The couple previously said they divested from some of their companies, but the BIR found that they &quot;failed to file a documentary stamp tax return and pay the documentary stamp tax to properly execute such transfers of shares.&quot;</p><p>&quot;This means that not only did they fail to file the return and pay the corresponding taxes, they also failed to divest from any of these four companies as its beneficial owners,&quot; it said.</p><div><a href="https://www.abs-cbn.com/news/business/2025/9/3/9-discaya-firms-lose-licenses-for-bidding-against-each-other-on-projects-1249">9 Discaya firms lose licenses for bidding against each other on projects</a></div><p>The agency said the Discaya couple &quot;never divested&quot; from St. Gerrard, St. Timothy, St. Matthew, and Alpha &amp; Omega, saying it has &quot;no record of any return or payment for such divestment, particularly that of documentary stamp taxes.&quot;</p><p>&quot;They never divested because they never paid the corresponding taxes necessary for such divestment.&quot;</p><div><br/></div><div><strong>BIR VOWS JAIL TIME FOR DISCAYAS</strong></div><div><strong><br/></strong></div><p>The BIR also discovered that the Discaya couple and St. Gerard &quot;failed to file the excise tax returns and pay the excise taxes of nine luxury vehicles registered under their names,&quot; citing records from the Land Transportation Office.</p><p>The BIR also vowed to audit other contractors and public officials involved in the flood control scandal.</p><p>&quot;The BIR will make sure that the Spouses Discaya and their Corporate Officers will be imprisoned for violating our tax laws,&quot; Lumagui said.</p><div><br/></div><div><strong>PROBE ON OTHER CONTRACTORS  </strong></div><div><br/></div><p>Other government contractors that President Ferdinand Marcos, Jr. said cornered billions worth of flood control projects and politicians tagged in irregularities would also be investigated, BIR Commissioner Romeo Lumagui, Jr. said. </p><p>“Simula pa lang ito at marami pa tayong tinitingnan. Ito pa lang ang nabuo natin na mga taxable years,” he said. </p><p>“Patuloy ang pag-a-audit natin at imbestigasyon sa lahat ng mga contractors, hindi lang sa mga contractors. Nagko-conduct na rin tayo ng lifestyle checks sa mga personalities involved,” he said. </p><p>Possible status as state witnesses will not shield the Discayas from their responsibility in paying their P7.1 billion in tax liabilities, Lumagui added. </p><p>“Kahit maging state witness sila, kinakailangan nilang bayaran itong buwis na ito dahil hindi naman ito yung restitution from the crime na iniisip nila. Iba yun sa nakikita natin na tax liability. Kinakailangan pa rin bayaran ito regardless sa magiging status nila sa kasong kriminal,” he said.  </p><p>Cornelio Samaniego, the lawyer of the Discayas, did not comment on the cases when asked about this at the Department of Justice. </p><div><strong>RELATED VIDEOS: </strong></div><div><span class="fr-video fr-deletable fr-fvc fr-dvb fr-draggable" contenteditable="false" draggable="true"><iframe width="640" height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/n7mLglVpiBs?&amp;wmode=opaque&amp;rel=0" frameBorder="0" allowfullscreen="" class="fr-draggable"></iframe></span><span class="fr-video fr-deletable fr-fvc fr-dvb fr-draggable" contenteditable="false" draggable="true"><iframe width="640" height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/OYo-SXdIgQE?&amp;wmode=opaque&amp;rel=0" frameBorder="0" allowfullscreen="" class="fr-draggable"></iframe></span><span class="fr-video fr-deletable fr-fvc fr-dvb fr-draggable" contenteditable="false" draggable="true"><iframe width="640" height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/QxvMJ3zAvDw?&amp;wmode=opaque&amp;rel=0" frameBorder="0" allowfullscreen="" class="fr-draggable"></iframe></span><br/></div>

<p>The BIR said it had discovered that for taxable years 2018 to 2021, the couple "failed to pay billions in income taxes."</p>

The BIR said it had discovered that for taxable years 2018 to 2021, the couple "failed to pay billions in income taxes."

BIR files P7.1-B tax complaints vs Discayas, says couple 'never divested' from firms

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BIR files P7.1-B tax complaints vs Discayas, says couple 'never divested' from firms

Rowegie Abanto,

Job Manahan,

ABS-CBN News

Published October 08, 2025 10:30 AM PHT

|

Updated October 08, 2025 12:11 PM PHT

Read More:

Sarah Discaya

Curlee Discaya

BIR

Tax Charges

Discaya Couple

Flood Control

Flood Control Scandal

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