[Inside the Newsroom] How Rappler uncovered Sara Duterte’s company contracts with Davao City Hall

Rappler has exposed government officials' conflicts of interest involving infrastructure projects. The story of Sara Duterte and Gencorp revealed that this kind of scheme can also happen in food contracts. And perhaps there are similar stories hiding in procurement records across the country.

AT A GLANCE

• Patrick Cruz, a public finance reporter for Rappler, shifted his focus to cover the impeachment trial of Vice President Sara Duterte, specifically reporting on the senator-judges and related proceedings.
• During his investigation, Cruz uncovered connections between Duterte and Gencorp, a company that won significant government contracts, raising questions about Duterte's financial disclosures and potential conflicts of interest.
• Cruz emphasizes the importance of curiosity and thorough investigation in journalism, advocating for reporters to dig deeper into records and documents to uncover stories that may reveal corruption or conflicts of interest in government contracts.

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Hello, I’m Patrick Cruz, Rappler’s public finance reporter.

My job is to follow the money — the people’s money — and track how it is allocated, spent, and misused.

My coverage, however, somehow shifted when I was tapped as one of three Rappler reporters assigned to cover the impeachment trial of Vice President Sara Duterte. I was assigned to cover the senator-judges, which meant reporting on the proceedings, the atmosphere inside the courtroom, and the decisions of the senator-judges.

One of the stories I wrote on July 20, 2026, involved the impeachment court’s issuance of subpoenas for the bank and tax records of companies linked to Duterte and her husband, Mans Carpio. 

That got me thinking: Are these companies also doing business with the government?

(After all, our country is run by politicians whose companies or their relatives’ companies earn billions of pesos out of infrastructure projects funded by hard earned money of Filipinos. We mapped them out here.)

I checked the companies linked to the Vice President one by one against government procurement records. 

There, I found that Gencorp had won millions of pesos worth of food contracts from Davao City Hall and the PhilHealth Davao Regional Office.

That was the beginning of my two-month investigation.

Following the paper trail

I compiled the contracts into a Google Sheet and verified them one by one. I reviewed Duterte’s Statements of Assets, Liabilities, and Net Worth (SALN) across several years and went through bidding documents, purchase orders, notices of award, and other procurement records.

We also bought Gencorp’s General Information Sheet filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). (Yes, we have to pay for these types of documents for our stories.)

But, instead of giving me more clarity, it brought me to another question: Why doesn’t Duterte’s name appear in the SEC records?

And then I also found something interesting: that businessman Jaime Tan Cruz is a shareholder of Gencorp. 

Cruz is no stranger to former president Rodrigo Duterte, Sara’s father. The Duterte patriarch appointed him as Special Envoy to the People’s Republic of China for Trade and Investment. He was also considered for the post of PhilHealth president and CEO. 

It later turned out that Cruz is a business partner of the Duterte siblings: Vice President Sara Duterte, Davao City Mayor Sebastian “Baste” Duterte, and Davao City 1st District Representative Paolo “Pulong” Duterte.

The headline of our report, however, was criticized as “misleading” by Duterte’s spokesperson, Paolo Panelo. He argued that Gencorp was not the Vice President’s company.

So why did Duterte declare Gencorp as among her businesses in her SALN? Well, the Vice President has yet to answer this question. The fact remains that Gencorp is in the sworn SALN of the Vice President. 

After our investigative report was published, the issue was tackled in the impeachment court in relation to Duterte’s alleged unexplained wealth.

Davao City Mayor Baste Duterte, who was initially not listed as a witness in the trial, was compelled to appear before the court and answer questions about government contracts won by a company linked to his sister.

Before the court, Mayor Duterte said he did not know that his sister had an interest in Gencorp or that the company had won millions of pesos worth of contracts from the city government he is running.

In fact, he said the company had received even more contracts than those identified in our initial report.

Curiosity moves the story forward

At Rappler, our managers and editors often remind us to “move the story forward.”

For me, that starts with curiosity.

I could have stopped after reporting on the impeachment court’s subpoena for the records of Duterte-linked companies and called it a day. Instead, I dug into government procurement records to see what else the paper trail might reveal.

That, to me, is what it means to move a story forward. It means not stopping at the obvious news peg or covering a press conference, but digging through documents, checking records, following names, and pursuing the next lead.

Sometimes, that trail leads somewhere you did not expect.

That discipline has helped Rappler reporters produce investigative stories exposing conflicts of interest involving infrastructure projects in the wake of the flood control corruption scandal.

The story of Sara Duterte and Gencorp revealed that this kind of scheme can also happen in food contracts.

And perhaps there are similar stories hiding in procurement records across the country.

Maybe your local officials or their relatives have business interests that intersect with government contracts. Maybe they own a Jollibee or McDonald’s in your city and their business also supplies food for government events. Maybe they are suppliers of sound systems, laptops, or security services. Maybe they own a gas station where government vehicles buy their fuel.

If you know of a similar scheme, please report it to us at investigative@rappler.com.

You can also support more in-depth stories by donating to our investigative fund or joining the Rappler+ membership program. – Rappler.com

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