Netizens aren’t done having their fun with the personalities that have been caught up in the flood control controversy. After Sarah Discaya’s interview with news anchor Julius Babao made headlines in the past week, internet sleuths managed to resurface her interview with Korina Sanchez in the NET25 program Korina Interviews, where Discaya demonstrated her “British accent.” This comes as the contractor attends the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee’s probe on the flood control projects on Monday, September 1.
The interview started with Sanchez asking about Discaya’s childhood in the U.K., where she was born to overseas Filipino workers. Discaya said that when she returned to the Philippines as a teenager, she struggled to speak Filipino. She then told Sanchez that she still has the British accent.
A viral clip from the interview shows Discaya saying, “Actually, I still talk to my sister using our British accent. So we converse in English. I even converse with my kids in my accent, and they understand the British accent as well as the American English accent.”
The clip has become a meme online, with some netizens drawing comparisons between Discaya and Senator Imee Marcos. A post by a political meme page on Instagram shows an old video of Marcos presenting film awards in what sounds like an attempt at a British accent.
Flood Control Hearing Continues
On Monday, Discaya appeared at the Senate’s second hearing on the flood control projects after being issued a subpoena for failing to attend the first hearing on August 19. As the president of construction company Alpha and Omega Gen. Contractor & Development Corp., she is among 15 representatives of contracting firms being investigated for anomalous or ghost projects under the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH). Discaya is also one of the personalities whose “lavish” lifestyles have been blasted by the public due to corruption allegations.
In the hearing led by Blue Ribbon Committee Chairman Sen. Rodante Marcoleta, Discaya said that viral clips of her interviews have been “spliced” to show that she and her family only amassed wealth after scoring DPWH projects. “I would presume na in the 23 years [in business], pwede naman po siguro kami kumita,” she said.
Discaya also said that her family started bidding for contracts under the DPWH in 2012. When asked by Sen. Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa when she started working with the government agency, Discaya answered, “2016 onwards.”
The Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism (PCIJ) reported in 2018 that St. Gerrard Construction Gen. Contractor & Development Corp., one of Discaya’s companies, had bagged contracts worth P12.3 billion from the Duterte administration’s “Build, Build, Build” program.
The company was also suspended for a year by the DPWH in 2015 for submitting a falsified tax clearance to the Department of Budget and Management Procurement Service. However, during the suspension period, the company still won contracts worth P440.5 million, according to the PCIJ.
The Senate inquiry was prompted by President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr.’s call to investigate the government’s flood control projects after an onslaught of heavy rains devastated various parts of the Philippines this summer. According to the president, an initial review revealed that 20 percent of the flood control projects, costing P100 billion, were all undertaken by the 15 contractors now being investigated by the government.
