Of the four unfinished bridge projects in Tuguegarao City, three were proposed by Cagayan Third Congressional District Rep. Joseph “Jojo” Lara cumulatively worth P9.3 billion.
By Raymund B. Villanueva
LAST OF 2 PARTS
FIRST PART: In Tuguegarao, there are no bridges when waters are troubled
It was no surprise that Rep. Joseph Lasam Lara would prioritize big-ticket infrastructure projects as soon as his first term started in 2019. He is a civil engineer by training, after all. For sure, Tuguegarao City is in need of more major bridges to keep its traffic moving even during extreme weather events and flooding.
But his Cagayan Third Congressional District constituents are asking: Who really profits from the several bridge projects he initiated yet remain incomplete after several years?
In November 2025, the Independent Commission on Infrastructure (ICI) asked the Office of the Ombudsman to file criminal and administrative proceedings against Lara and seven other former and incumbent lawmakers implicated in the flood control corruption scandal rocking the Ferdinand Marcos Jr. government. ICI chair Andres Reyes said that Lara and his co-accused appear to have violated the Code of Conduct for Government Officials and the Anti-Graft (and) Corruption Act for their connection to government contractors while in office.
Lara founded JLL Pulsar Construction, bid winner of an astonishing 248 government projects from 2016 to 2024 worth more than P11 billion, per a 2025 ICI report, mostly roads, bridges, and flood control developments in Cagayan Valley (Region 2) and Ilocos (Region 1). By all indications, JLL Pulsar Construction was a most favored government contractor.
ICI said lawmakers like Lara should not be engaging in private business activities in conflict with their official duties, influencing bids and awards, sway procurement processes, and participating or benefitting from government contracts. “This practice should have ended decades ago. The longer we allow it to exist, the more it corrodes public trust. Let us tear down this abusive system, one by one, with every filing,” Reyes said.
Kodao attempted to seek an interview with Lara on several occasions and through various means. His office did not respond.
The ‘Congtractor’
Lara started public life as chief-of-staff of the late former Cagayan governor and second district representative Edgar Lara. Back then, he was said to be of humble means, driving around in an owner-type jeep. It was after his cousin Edgar’s political career had ended that Lara struck out on his own, first seeking the mayoralty of his hometown Tuguegarao in 2010, but losing to the veteran Delfin Ting.
It was between his failed mayoralty bid and his election as Cagayan Third District representative in 2019 that Lara established JLL Pulsar Construction into a billion-peso contract winning firm. JLL stands for Joseph Lasam Lara, his full name.
He claims that he had divested himself from any position from the firm since 2019 and majority of the company had been turned over to his five children. One of the children had since died while another is reportedly residing in Canada. Lara’s wife is a medical doctor.
One of the company’s most significant contracts — the 271-meter, P353 million Diversion and By Pass Road (Namuccayan Bridge) in Santo Niño, Cagayan — was awarded a year after Lara became Congressman in 2019. The bridge was originally slated for completion in February 2024, but Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) records show a 91.36% completion rate after six years of construction.
In 2021, a Philippine Information Agency article described the period as a “building year” in Cagayan due to infrastructure projects Lara initiated, such as the Amulung Bridge, the Itawes Overflow Bridge, and the Tuguegarao-Solana Bridge within and outside his district.
He picked up from where he left off in his second term, proposing the Pinacanauan Bridge 2 and Tuguegarao-Enrile Bridge projects. It was during this time that all infrastructure projects in his district began to be branded part of his “KaunLARAn” building campaign.
While he sat as congressman, JLL Pulsar Construction had won nine contracts in Region 1 from 2020 to 2022, estimated at P614 million, all located in Pangasinan province. ICI said the projects were without clear indication of phased implementation and were similarly labeled as “Construction of Bypass and Diversion Roads, Villasis to Santo Tomas Bypass Road,” with budgets of P105.8 million in 2020, P92.8 million in 2021, and P51.9 million in 2022.
Another project, the “Construction of Bridge at Sitio Pinmaludpod, Urdaneta City” appeared twice under different DPWH classifications: P28.9 million under Loan Proceeds in 2021 and P51.9 million under Sustainable Infrastructure Projects Alleviating Gaps (SIPAG) the following year. In his investigations as Senate Blue Ribbon Committee chairperson, Panfilo Lacson flagged SIPAG for duplication and irregularly high allocations.
Not in his district
Lara’s office was quick to reply to ICI’s announcement, denying JLL Pulsar Construction entered into contracts in his own district. In a November 26, 2025 post on his official Facebook page, Lara said ICI’s recommendation was a “welcome development,” because it is a chance to clarify his links to JLL Pulsar Construction.
Lara claimed he is not being accused of anomalous flood control, ghost, or substandard projects of the DPWH but on his connections with the construction firm he established and currently owned on paper by his surviving children.
He added that JLL Pulsar Construction never bid for government contracts in his district since he became congressman in 2019. But at least two mayors are complaining about infrastructure projects that Lara instigated and sought national funding for.
Mayor Edgar Decena Jr. claims the local government unit of Enrile, Cagayan was never consulted about the Enrile-Tuguegarao Bridge he said should have been placed near national highways and not in farm-to-market roads where it is currently being built.
Tuguegarao Mayor Maila Ting-Que, meanwhile, is questioning why the building of Pinacanauan Bridge 2 is being done at a decidedly snail’s pace.
Ting-Que actually approves of building more bridges connecting their city to all points of the compass. “What I lament about him (Lara) is his aversion to consultations and dialogues with local executives,” she told Kodao.
The city’s first-ever female mayor disagrees with Lara’s simultaneous bridge construction style. “The concurrent construction activities are creating chaos in our city. He should finish one major project before starting another,” she said.
Lara’s phase-by-phase funding of the bridge projects are also causing undue delays.
“We wait for years and years before a bridge is completed. There is no ROI (return of investment) in terms of benefits to our residents and visitors. It is wasteful of public funds,” she said.
“He (Lara) is not an executive officer. Why is he deciding when and how to implement the projects? That’s usurpation of executive authority,” Ting-Que added.
Dike that makes water flow backwards
Tuguegarao residents are also questioning other flood control initiatives in the city, such as the ongoing Tuguegarao Circumferential Dike Road enterprise, a massive, multi-package flood mitigation and infrastructure project initiated in 2021. Its declared objective is ease traffic congestion while protecting the city from Pinacanauan River overflows.
The project is worth P277 million over four phases. In one of the project’s completed portions, however, a riverbank embankment was already in place and remains in good condition, leading residents to ask if the new project really warranted prioritization amid other construction activities in the area. They also revealed that no feasibility study was ever presented to them before the project was started.
Like the four ongoing bridge projects, the dike road venture is facing delays. The bustling construction — alongside recent closures of nearby structures like the Pinacanauan Overflow Bridge during heavy rains — contributes to worsening traffic jams into and from the city.
Designed as a continuous levee with gravity and flap gates to protect local neighborhoods during usual overflows, severe weather events can still cause the Pinacanauan and Cagayan Rivers to exceed critical levels, occasionally rendering low-lying access roads impassable. On such occurance, residents fear that the dike will contribute to prolonged flooding as it impedes natural outflow of water from adjacent communities. During Supertyphoon Uwan, the levee even pushed water to flow towards the opposite direction, they reported.
Rep. Lara is also being accused of using his position to protect his personal property, such as flood control projects located near his residential and business assets in Peñablanca town.
Instead of concrete embankments near the town’s poblacion and along the main Pinacanauan River channel, these are located behind Lara’s sprawling properties, including a quarry that is part of JLL Pulsar Construction’s operations.
DPWH, national government silent
Upon hearing President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s explicit orders to have questionable flood control and infrastructure projects investigated, Enrile’s Decena Jr. formed a multipartite committee that included private sector representatives to investigate Lara’s projects in their municipality.
“We found ghost, substandard and overlapping projects all over,” he revealed.
The district and regional offices of the DPWH only submit tepid quarterly reports, Decena Jr. said. The mayor said he had never been given any feasibility study, program of work, detailed geo-tagging, engineering design, permits, and environmental compliance certificate from any Lara-sponsored big-ticket projects in his town despite repeated requests to the DPWH. “They just come and build as if the local government doesn’t exist,” he said.
“Did you know that DPWH Cagayan’s Third Engineering District’s completion rate is ‘poor’ at only 67 per cent? All the officials there are beholden only to Lara,” Mayor Decena added.
Armed with a list of ghost, substandard and anomalous infrastructure projects that the multipartite committee he formed compiled, Mayor Decena had since motored to Manila to seek an audience with public works secretary Vince Dizon to ask for further investigations. Despite promises, no one has called or emailed back.
Nonetheless, he said he did what he could in accordance with President’s “Mahiya naman kayo!” (Have some shame!) order. “I finish my last term in two years. The ball is in their hands.”
“But are they really interested?” he asked.
Rep. Lara, on the other hand, frequently spoke about his bridge projects as designed to connect peoples, communities, and areas in his district. But with no new bridge finished, these are failing to help the people, especially during Cagayan River’s frequent floods. At the moment, he chooses to publicly bicker with political rivals until the next flood sobers everyone’s rhetoric back to Tuguegarao needing bridges, not divides. #
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This two-part investigative report was produced with the assistance of Earth Journalism Network.
