Sara Duterte’s company won millions’ worth of contracts from Davao City Hall - Rappler
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A company linked to Vice President Sara Duterte cornered P15.02 million worth of food and catering contracts from the PhilHealth Davao Regional Office and Davao City Hall, which has been run by their family for decades. The contracts were awarded between 2022 and 2025.
Sara Duterte was elected vice president when Gencorp secured these deals, while her brother, Sebastian “Baste” Duterte, was serving as mayor in Davao City, the same local government where Gencorp secured most of its contracts.
After Gencorp secured P5.65 million worth of food contracts from Davao City Hall in 2022, the company’s government deals rose to P7.07 million in 2023.
The amount of government contracts bagged by the company dropped to P1.68 million in 2024, the year when the fallout between Duterte and Marcos became more apparent, with Sara attending a rally calling for the President’s resignation.
It further declined to P617,830 in 2025, amid the impeachment trial of the Vice President.
The Vice President’s 2022, 2023, and 2024 Statements of Assets, Liabilities, and Net Worth (SALN), list her as a stockholder of Gencorp. Her SALN states that Sara has had an interest in Gencorp since 2013, or for more than a decade now.
Gencorp cornered most of these deals through small-value procurement, a non-competitive method that allows government agencies to simplify the purchase of goods and services. The New Government Procurement Act allows first-class local government units to procure items not exceeding P2 million.
Gencorp was previously named Great Jolly Times Food and later renamed Times Square Bee Food Corp.
Sara Duterte’s spokesperson Paolo Panelo told Rappler on Monday, September 14, that the issues raised about Gencorp Industries Inc. are part of the pending impeachment proceedings against the Vice President and would be addressed before the Senate impeachment court.
“It shall suffice to state for now that the Vice President categorically denies any wrongdoing. Any suggestion that she used her office, undue influence, or political leverage to secure government contracts for any private firm is false. We’ll let the evidence in the impeachment trial speak for itself,” Duterte’s camp said.
Rappler also reached out to the office of Mayor Duterte for comment, but he has yet to reply, as of writing. This story will be updated once he responds.
The biggest deal secured by Gencorp was from Davao City Hall: P6.28 million for “food and catering service” in September 2023.
Another big contract secured by Gencorp was a P5.14-million “food and catering service” for Davao City Hall in 2022. Resolution No 11-032 shows that this was requested by the office of Sara’s brother, Mayor Baste Duterte, on November 15, 2022. She was already vice president at this time.
Gencorp is linked to “Jollibee Davao Bolton” in Davao City, a known favorite hangout of the Dutertes and their allies. A notice of award from Davao City Hall was addressed to a certain Lotus Rieta and tagged Jollibee Bolton as a supplier. A receipt issued by Jollibee Davao Bolton also shows that it is owned by Gencorp.
Jollibee Davao Bolton is in the Philippine Veterans Legion Building along Bolton Street, the listed address of Gencorp in its corporate records. Bolton Street is located between city hall and the Sangguniang Panlungsod building.
In June 2022, after Baste took his oath as city mayor, his father, Rodrigo Duterte, and Senator Bong Go ate in Jollibee Davao Bolton.
“Dating gawi. Pagkatapos ng oath taking ni Mayor Baste ay nagkayayaan kaming kumain ni Tatay Digong. Ito na ang nakasanayan at ginagawa namin 20 years ago!” Go wrote in a Facebook post.
(Same old routine. After Mayor Baste’s oath-taking, Tatay Digong and I decided to grab a meal together. This is something we’ve been doing for the past 20 years!)
Davao City has been ruled by the Dutertes for nearly four decades. It was also where Sara Duterte’s political career began. She first served as vice mayor in 2007, then as mayor from 2010 to 2013. After a break from politics, she returned as mayor in 2016 and was reelected in 2019, serving until 2022. She was elected vice president that same year.
Gencorp’s business boomed in 2022, the year Sara became vice president. Gencorp’s net income spiked from P182,794 in 2021 to P1.83 million the following year — a tenfold increase.
2022 was also the year when Gencorp secured a P5.14-million food deal from Davao City Hall.
The company’s net income continued to rise to P2.7 million in 2023 and P3.32 million in 2024.
Gencorp secured government deals while Sara was vice president, raising questions about a potential conflict of interest.
Article VII of the 1987 Constitution prohibits the vice president from participating “in any business, or be financially interested in any contract with, or in any franchise, or special privilege granted by the government or any subdivision, agency, or instrumentality.”
“They (president, vice-president, the members of the cabinet, and their deputies or assistants) shall strictly avoid conflict of interest in the conduct of their office,” Article VII of the 1987 Constitution reads.
Taking the witness stand before the impeachment court on Monday, former Sandiganbayan presiding justice Amparo Cabotaje-Tang also emphasized that the president and vice president are required to divest from all businesses.
“They hold greater powers, so the prohibitions imposed on them are more stringent. Because of the powers they wield, there is a greater possibility of abusing their office,” Tang explained.
Section 7(a) of the Code of Conduct for Public Officials also bars officials from holding financial interests in companies seeking government contracts, and requires them to avoid conflicts of interest or to divest within 30 to 60 days of assuming office.
Lawyer and good governance advocate Eirene Aguila said that Section 3 (h) of the Anti-Graft Law “penalizes a public officer who has a direct or indirect financial or pecuniary interest in a business, contract or transaction in connection with which she intervenes in her official capacity, or in which she is prohibited by the Constitution or by law from having an interest.”
If Duterte’s financial interest in Gencorp is proven to violate the Anti-Graft Law, she could face perpetual disqualification from public office, Aguila told Rappler.
Mayor Baste Duterte could also potentially face liability if evidence proves that he participated in, approved, facilitated, or knowingly allowed the award to Gencorp despite the company being disqualified under procurement rules, Aguila said.
Under Section 47 of the implementing rules of the Government Procurement Reform Act, a bidder must submit an affidavit stating that the company or its corporate officers are not related by blood or marriage up to the third civil degree to the head of the procuring entity and other officials involved in the procurement. Such a relationship automatically disqualifies the bidder.
If Gencorp was covered by this prohibition and Mayor Duterte nevertheless took part in allowing the award, he could potentially face a separate liability under Section 3(e) of the Anti-Graft Law.
This provision applies when a public officer, through manifest partiality, evident bad faith, or gross inexcusable negligence, gives a private party an unwarranted benefit or preference. If convicted, Mayor Duterte could be perpetually disqualified from holding public office.
There is a discrepancy between the Vice President’s SALNs and the records of companies she declared as having business interests in.
Documents from the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) show she is not listed as a shareholder or corporate officer of Gencorp.
Duterte, in her statement on April 23, 2026, said her SALN declarations were accurate.
“My answer to all the attacks is simple. My service record is clean, I have never had any case involving the misuse of public funds. All my assets and money have been declared in my SALN. Every centavo comes from legitimate sources and is backed by proper documentation,” Duterte said.
Based on Gencorp’s general information sheet filed in 2026, the shareholders of the company are Jaime T. Cruz, Kimberly Justine Y. Cruz, Ricci Evette L. Cruz, Nathan Zachary L. Cruz, Gerlie S. Cruz, and JTC Group of Companies.
Jaime T. Cruz, Kimberly Justine Y. Cruz, Ricci Evette L. Cruz, Nathan Zachary L. Cruz, and Gerlie S. Cruz are all shareholders of JTC Group of Companies. JTC and Gencorp also share the same business address in Davao City. JTC also appears to reflect the same initials as Jaime T. Cruz.
Ricci and Jaime are husband and wife. There is no public information about the personal ties of the shareholders who all share the same surname. Corporate records, however, showed that Jaime, Kimberly, Ricci, and Nathan share the same home address.
Based on its website, JTC owns franchises of Jollibee, Chowking, Dohtonbori, and Karayama. The company also owns a branch of KNatural Beauty and Skin Studio and Studio One, an all-in-one recording studio.
Some of the shareholders of Gencorp are linked to the Duterte family.
The biggest shareholder of Gencorp is the JTC Group of Companies, which is primarily owned by Filipino-Chinese businessman Jaime T. Cruz.
In 2019, then-president Rodrigo Duterte appointed Cruz as Special Envoy to the People’s Republic of China, Trade and Investments, Malaya Business Insight reported.
Months before his appointment, then-president Duterte offered top PhilHealth posts (CEO and president) to Cruz. There is no information on whether or not Cruz accepted the offer, but months later, Duterte named Ricardo C. Morales to lead PhilHealth.
Cruz was also part of the business delegation that accompanied Duterte on his working visit to Japan. Part of that delegation, too, was Gencorp’s president Kimberly Cruz.
On the sidelines of that trip, Jaime Cruz and Kimberly Cruz secured a deal to operate Dohtonbori and Karayama restaurants in the Philippines.
The Vice President is facing an impeachment trial over her alleged unexplained wealth, misuse of confidential funds, bribery, and grave threats against President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., First Lady Liza Arenata Marcos, and his cousin Martin Romualdez.
The House prosecution accuses Duterte of betrayal of public trust for allegedly accumulating unexplained wealth grossly disproportionate to her legitimate income and failing to fully disclose her assets in her SALN.
Gencorp’s financial records, including bank and tax records, were among the evidence listed by the House prosecution to show Duterte’s supposed unexplained wealth.
Aside from Gencorp’s records, the House also sought to use the financial documents of JTC to be used as evidence in the trial. The Senate impeachment court, however, denied the prosecution’s request to subpoena these documents, as the company’s general information sheets do not show the names of Duterte nor her husband.
In the House justice committee hearing in April 2026, it was found that Duterte and her husband, Mans Carpio, had P6.77 billion in large and suspicious transactions from 2006 to 2025, significantly exceeding the amounts reported in her SALN.
The Anti-Money Laundering Council reported 630 covered transaction reports and 33 suspicious transaction reports related to their bank accounts, with P230.87 million in transactions occurring from 2019 to 2024.
Duterte’s 2024 SALN shows that she has a net worth of P88.51 million. – Rappler.com
