The National Housing Authority (NHA) has launched an investigation on the bidding of housing projects under the Zamboanga road map to recovery and reconstruction which aims to help thousands of families left homeless after the 2013 Zamboanga siege.

Newly-appointed NHA General Manager Marcelino Escalada said some of the contractors were awarded up to six projects which they find difficulty completing on the target date.

Escalada said the previous officials of NHA interpreted and computed the net financial contracting capacity of contractors per project instead of computing it as a whole, leaving the contractors with difficulty in completing the projects on time.

He said that the NHA under his administration will make sure that the net financial contracting capacity of bidders will be computed as a whole, including previously awarded projects.

The 25 projects under the road map were bidded out to only nine construction firms.

The Billrey construction company got the most number of projects numbering to about six, with a total project cost of more than P212 million.

Some of the awarded projects include the Tulungatung housing project, Christian Muslim and Lustre housing project.

They also got the site development and filling work projects of Christian Muslim and Tulungatung site development.

Meanwhile, the Vicente Lao construction firm got the biggest accumulated project costs amounting to around P473 million.

Some of their housing projects are Rio Hondo housing project (P156 million), Aplaya housing project (P66 million), Evangelista housing project (P71.9 million), and Vale Vista phase 2 (P179.2 million).

The Nurben construction firm also got four housing projects, while the Bendimil construction company got three projects including the redevelopment of water lines and temporary sanitation facilities.

The five other contractors were awarded at least two projects each.

According to the NHA, most of these contractors sub-contracted other firms just to fast track the construction of the housing units sacrificing the quality of projects.

An investigating body has already been formed to probe how the construction firms got multiple projects.

Escalada said he would also investigate on whether some NHA officials benefited from the questionable bidding process or favored a specific firm for that matter.