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December 23, 2025 | 5:01pm
Sally Santos, owner of Syms Construction Company, along with officials from the Department of Justice, as she returned P15 million at the Department of Justice on Dec. 22, 2025.
Department of Justice / Released
MANILA, Philippines — Contractor Sally Santos has returned a total of P20 million to the national treasury from flood control projects, the Department of Justice (DOJ) said.
Santos, the owner of Syms Construction Company, returned P15 million to state coffers through the Department of Justice on Monday, December 22.
This brings the total amount she has returned to P20 million, including the P5 million she previously turned over on Dec. 4, 2025.
DOJ spokesperson Polo Martinez said the cash was already deposited with the Land Bank of the Philippines after being documented at the DOJ.
He said the return of the money is part of the partial restitution by Santos pursuant to the terms of her memorandum of agreement.
Martinez also explained that the final amount to be surrendered by Santos will be equivalent to the royalty fees she received from the “hiram lisensya scheme.”
Santos previously confessed to allowing Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) engineers to use her business licenses for various projects.
She explained that she received a three percent “royalty” for any contracts secured through her company, a practice that generated millions of pesos in revenue.
However, Santos maintained that she was unaware the licenses were being used to facilitate fraudulent or irregular infrastructure deals.
Others have also returned ill-gotten wealth. On December 19, former DPWH engineer Henry Alcantara returned P71 million to state coffers, also through the DOJ.
This brings the total amount returned by Alcantara to P181 million.
The promised amount for restitution is P300 million.
Aside from Alcantara, former DPWH regional director Gerard Opulencia also turned over P40 million to the Department of Justice on December 16, part of his commitment to return a total of P150 million.
