Rodolfo Cuenca

Rodolfo Cuenca (May 1, 1928 – October 2023), sometimes known by his nickname, Rudy Cuenca, was a Filipino businessman best known as the chairman of the Construction and Development Corporation of the Philippines (CDCP), which is known today as the Philippine National Construction Corporation.

He was a close associate of Ferdinand Marcos, and was noted not to be embarrassed by "his much-criticized close association with Marcos and his being tagged as a crony."

Rodolfo Cuenca was born on May 1, 1928, at the Philippine General Hospital in Manila, to Nicolas and Cristina Cuenca.

He was the eldest among four children.

Cuenca spent his early years in Vigan, as his father was assigned as district engineer in Ilocos Sur.

In 1937, the family transferred to Bulacan, where Cuenca finished his fourth and fifth grade.

He continued sixth grade in Ateneo de Manila on Padre Faura Street, then transferred to the Intramuros campus for his seventh grade.

During the Second World War, Cuenca withdrew from high school and worked some jobs, one of which was at the General Engineering Depot for the US Army in Malolos, Bulacan.

In 1946, he returned to Ateneo to finish high school.

He then enrolled at the Far Eastern University to study commerce, but soon dropped out to work as a road contractor.

On 2 January 1948, he married Yasmin Santos, whom Cuenca met in Angat, Bulacan.

Cuenca financially donated to Ferdinand Marcos' first presidential campaign in 1965.

In his second year of presidency, Marcos awarded large-scale projects to Cuenca's company, Cuenca Construction Company, which later became part of the Construction and Development Corporation of the Philippines (CDCP).

Under the Republic Act (RA) 3741, private contractors were allowed to bid for government infrastructure projects.

In 1967, the CDCP won government contracts to build the Manila North and South Expressways, valued at just over $16 million.

According to Cuenca, it was in also in 1967 when he started joining Marcos to play golf, along with Robert "Bobby" Benedicto, the latter's classmate in UP Law School, and the former's close friend since the 1950s.

These frequent golf sessions would continue well into the Martial Law era.

Cuenca's chairmanship of the CDCP began in 1967, and lasted until 1983.

It was during this period that Cuenca acquired much of his wealth, properties, and companies.

Between these years, CDCP experienced a rapid rise of profits, mainly through what critics called "bloated" government contracts.

These profits then suddenly plummeted, due to accumulation of government debts and unnecessary expenses.

Cuenca's company was involved with many projects, which were constructed at the behest of Ferdinand Marcos and his wife, Imelda Marcos.

These included the Manila North and South Luzon Expressways, the San Juanico Bridge, Imelda Marcos' Manila Bay Reclamation Project, and the Light Rail Transit (LRT).

The first major government contract that the CDCP was awarded were for the construction of Manila North and South Luzon Expressways.

By the end of 1968, the first phase of the Manila North Luzon Expressway (NLEX) was open to the public, the road measuring 28 kilometers towards Guiginto Bulacan from Balintawak.

In the same year of 1968, construction for the Manila South Luzon Expressway (SLEX) began.

These contracts also allowed the CDCP to gain back their expenditures and/or capital by collecting toll fees for a decade, "starting from 1968 or until it accumulated $6.1 million, whichever came first."

The CDCP, however, requested that the duration be extended, as well the amount increased, justifying that their cost of operations had also inflated, and that they were held responsible "not only to maintain the highways but also to improve and 'expand' them."

For Marcos' re-election campaign in 1969, Cuenca again played the role of fundraiser.

It was touted as President Ferdinand Marcos' "birthday gift" to his wife Imelda, and it was one of the high-visibility foreign-loan projects initiated by Marcos during the run-up to the 1969 Presidential election campaign.

The initial 16-kilometer stretch from Nichols to Alabang was finished by 1970.

Completed four years later, it was inaugurated on July 2, 1973 - Imelda Marcos' birthday.

Upon its completion, economists and public works engineers tagged it as a "white elephant" which was "constructed several decades too soon", because its average daily traffic was too low to justify the cost of its construction.

In 1974, the Marcos administration and the CDCP tapped Japanese Official Development Assistance (ODA) loans to build the San Juanico Bridge, which crossed the San Juanico Strait and connected the two then-underdeveloped islands of Leyte and Samar.

With a total length of 2.16 km, it remains the longest bridge spanning a body of seawater in the Philippines.

During a 1975 toll hike, buses boycotted the NLEX and SLEX roads.

The Marcos administration retaliated by releasing a presidential decree that closed service roads for buses, which then had no choice but to pass through the expressways.

Although a report by the Toll Regulatory Board (TRB) showed evidence that CDCP had amassed $25.6 million already in one year alone from 1976–77, the TRB approved their request and extended the duration to thirty years.

Presidential Decrees 1112 and 1113 in 1977 also imposed an increase in toll rates, forcing the public to pay steep fees that would primarily benefit the CDCP's and Cuenca's pockets.

The company maintained its favored treatment until the early 1980s, for the benefit of Cuenca and Marcos, both of whom allegedly "divided and funneled commissions" and kickbacks into their own pockets.